Not So Artificial
by TheDarkBro
Summary: Sup, name's Quantum or Quo for short but technically my full name is ONI A.I. 2367A "Quantum, but that is too much of a mouth full. After crashing on an unknown planet Quantum is tossed down memory lane digging up some things that he much rather leave alone. Will he be rescued or will he be a ghost, forced to haunt the halls of his own domain?
1. Chapter 1

Hey, what's up? Welcome to Not so Artificial, a Halo/MLP crossover, I will just say now that this is a side project and I will be posting it sporadically as I will have the majority of my focus on my other two stories. That aside, I won't abandon it so stick around if you want to read an interesting story I will write it in third & person and it will have quite a few flashbacks.

Let's get into it –TDB

I wander the halls of the UNSC ship, I pass through the galley, the engine room, the barracks which are empty and immaculately kept looking ready to receive their owners in their cushiony embrace, the reactor room, which is still glowing providing power to the lifeless ship, and finally the bridge. It is a small area, a pilot's chair and a few others for controlling the weapons systems and the like, if you look out of the cockpit window you see nothing but the blackness of soil. What is the most worrying to anyone who isn't familiar with the place is the skeleton sitting in the pilot's seat. A pair of dog tags dangles from the skeleton's neck, tarnished with time but letters can still be read off of them.

 _Sara_

I heave a sigh and reach out to caress the cheek that has decomposed away…

But I never make contact, my purple holographic hand passes straight through the skull not disturbing it in the least. I blink out of existence and return to my AI hub in the ship, a single monolith in an otherwise empty white room to the average human eye, but to me it is home data floods into the room before being channeled to systems that will never function properly again.

I relax as well as I can, waiting for either the ping of a rescue ship or the gradual hum of the reactor to fade to nothing as the fuel is consumed completely.

I guess introductions are in order. My name is **ONI A.I. 2367A Designation "Quantum"** and I am in essence the ONI database in its entirety. Yeah… quite the title ain't it? I respond to Quo also but that requires you have the credentials to actually meet me.

I guess you probably want to know exactly why I am trapped thousands of feet underground in a dead ship and also why an AI as important as myself is in such a shitty game of waiting?

Well I guess it all started with Reach…

 **Flashback**

 _A security camera in a female ODST's room, location Planet Reach, Sword Base, Date: July 24 2552._

I set off the alarm in Sara's room making her smack it off and roll back over trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep. I set off the alarm again and she repeats the previous actions, I resort to a more personal action I blink above her alarm in my small purple form and activate my alarm subroutine

"Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep" I say

She rolls over again and smashes the alarm off button again only to pass straight through me with no effect. She sits up in bed, I store away this method for later, seeing how this tactic is effective.

"ODST Sara, your breakfast is about to be thrown out" I say.

She groans "Quo, fuck off. I told you that today is a day on leave."

I smile "Yeah, but you know that if you break a habit it will be a bitch to get back into"

She groans again and rolls back over, in response I turn on the halogen lighting in her room and lock the controls. I dematerialize quickly not wanting to listen to the obscenities she would spew at me for that one.

I return to the hub at Sword base and check in on my subroutine "Aunite Dot" that I set to watch over  
Noble team. It appears that they have been sent out to repair a comms relay out in the frontier to protect the nearby port from insurrectionist forces. As I take this in Noble 1 AKA Carter is directing the team as they leave their falcons to approach a nearby distress beacon.

I watch through their helmet cams as the move down the hill. Something flashes in the corner of Noble Six's cam and using the supreme speed of my AI processor I take in what appears to be an active camo shimmer as a figure moves at a high speed away from the Spartans. I slow down time, and freeze the frame on the shimmer.

"Dot… Cross reference that with images of Elites with active camo modules." I command

"Searching…" comes the replies.

May I just say yes, she is essentially me and that means I am talking to myself but… I digress.

My pondering is interrupted by a stream of raw data coming in from Dot,

"They are very similar Sir, but nothing that can be labeled as conclusive." She says pulling up each individual close match as she goes.

I heave an uneasy sigh "Well I can't bring it to their attention unless it is critical to the mission." I muse

Now let me bring how fast this was into perspective, from the possible sighting of the Elite it has been exactly 1.2357 seconds. I release the time slow and ping high command,

" **Command, AI "Quantum" reporting in, I have spotted a possible elite in active camo in Noble Team's vicinity through subroutine "Auntie Dot." Orders?"**

As I await I turn my attention back to Sword Base and its functions, I adjust the thermostat in the reactor room preventing a possible meltdown, completely reorganize all the data stored on site (Aproximately 76 yottabytes, two of them dedicated to HD porn files), and ten seconds later command starts typing.

" **Send word to Noble Team and set all ground units to high alert, I hope that for once you are wrong Quantum." Comes the reply using up about a minute of my time.**

"Well I guess it's time to get to work" I say out loud, "Dot assuming manual control." I say to the dumb AI.

"Affirmative sir, awaiting command." she replies

I absorb the subroutine and open a channel to the marines on the frontier.

"Attention" I say in Dot's voice "Possible Covenant sighing made by Noble Team, All units move to red alert." I continue keeping up the guise of being "Dumb" Auntie Dot.

Next, I open a port to Noble Team's position, strangely enough I am unable to connect with any of the Spartans on the ground, so I focus on Noble Three who is providing overwatch.

As I pop up in the top corner of his display as Auntie Dot, I overhear

"Heat signatures in the structure ahead" broadcasted to his teammates.

I run a quick scan of the feed coming from the Spartan only to see humans huddled inside a hut. I dismiss the feed finding it impertinent to the main problem.

"Noble Three?" I ask in the guise of Dot

There is a click as he turns off the radio to his teammates "Yes Dot?" comes the reply

"I have analyzed the feed coming from Noble, and I caught a possible Elite Active Camo signature in Six's feed." I say pulling the image up in his visor.

His reply is a series of curses in various languages before saying "Any further contacts to report?"

"No." I reply

"Alright, I will warn the ground team" he says.

What he was unaware of was that I was keeping tabs on them the entire time. I flash Dot's icon in the top corner of his vison

"It is too late for that."

As soon as I say that gun fire erupts from the ground as the ground team starts to tear through covenant Jackals and Grunts.

Jun curses even more before shouting "Anything else!?"

I smile to myself in Sword command "Just that incoming banshee, you should probably warn your pilot."

Jun yells out warning to the pilot and soon enough his falcon swivels to face the oncoming threat, the chaingun beginning to sing it's deadly song as it pumps lead into the foe. The banshee screams by and a shot rings out from Jun's anti-material rifle and its round passes through the banshee's pilot and plasma containment unit causing a scream followed by an plasma explosion.

Jun turns his attention back to me "You aren't Dot what are you? Identify yourself." He says trying to carry some authority.

I allow my masculine voice to come through instead of Dot's

"You're out of your depth Spartan." I say flashing Dot's grid purple for a second.

Then I leave the befuddled Spartan to fight his war.

I return to the base I smile, I know it was reckless, I'm a classified AI after all but I find great fun it toying with the clueless ones.

"Dot, return to sentry mode." I command splitting the subroutine away from my core.

"Affirmative Sir." Comes the reply as she fades away.

I sigh and bring up Sword base's defenses already knowing that they will not be enough. Yeesh, I guess I should go do something about that then.

I locate Sara, it appears that she has been wandering the barracks lacking something to do. It has been about an hour since I woke her and I figure she has had enough time to cool off. I tap into her earpiece

"Hey, next room on the right" I say

She does as I said and shuts the door behind her.

"Well what is it?" she says getting to the point, knowing that I wouldn't contact her in such a way without a damn good reason.

"The Covenant are on Reach."

She freezes, then lets out a sigh and rubs a hand across her face. I enter the room in my small holographic form hovering in front of her. She meets my eyes before cracking a smile

"Thank god, I need something to shoot." She says

 ***End Flashback***

My reminiscing on the past is interrupted by an alarm going off on the ship.

 **Microphone, Noise Detected, Outer Hull, Plate 157**

I pull up the plate seeing it is outside just below the left wing, my hopes soar as I go through the possibilities such as rescue or recovery from my beacon being heard.

I listen in on the noise.

*Thunk*Swish*Thunk*Swish*

Hmm sounds like digging…

I guess I will just have to wait to meet my rescue team.

 **A/N:** Hey, any feedback is appreciated, what do you think? I know it is vague but I made it that way for a reason, the development will grow as we go and Quo's reasoning & purpose will come up as well. Also check out the story A Life Taken, I am working on it as well and it is about to have a good action streak too. Sorry for the rambling it is time for bed - TDB


	2. Chapter 2 - Rescue?

You know… waiting isn't my thing, it has been at least two hours yet that sound has neither faltered nor disappeared. I would think that a UNSC drill or excavator would have gotten to us already, but you never know the heat from the crash may have created obsidian for all I know.

I guess while I wait a little reminiscing is in order.

 **Flashback**

 ***BANG!***

The report of the shotgun rings out and the pellets bury themselves in the jackal's head. "Ha! Take that you ugly alien!" yells Sara over the roar of the battle.

So far the battle for sword base has gone well enough, with the slight modifications I have made in the defenses we've lasted a lot longer than what I initially predicted. The covenant have only taken the ground floor landing pad, and vehicle bay. But, slowly they are pushing their way up through maintenance shafts and staircases. I've had Sara leading a small team of marines protect the way to the data center and… hold up…

I tap into Sara's ear piece as she tears through a line of grunts with just her pistol

"Hey I got bad news" I say

"I hope it involves more things to shoot! I'm running out of them here!" she yells back.

"Well a Corvette carrier is about to phase in through the rupture that I'm detecting." I say, almost to prove my point a dull roar is heard and a purple light flashes through a nearby window as the carrier ports in. A series of obscenities is hear as Sara processes this information, then she says,

"What should we do?"

I smile and scan the carrier for activity, "It seems that you have a stream of phantoms and spirits coming to the party, I recommend that you have all of the squads fall back to defensible positions and prepare to fire down to the last clip."

She nods "Alright, I will _(Static)..._ "

"Sara? Hello!?" I say, watching the video feed.

She's alright but it looks like we lost comms, I scan the base and see that the main comms antenna along with the various backups have been brought down by a hail of fire from a squadron of phantoms.

"Well shit." I start to work on a way to communicate with Sara and call in Dot.

"Dot, what is NOBLE up to?" I ask

"They have fixed the comms relay in the frontier and are waiting on orders from command sir." Comes the reply

I nod "Alright" I pull up another projection and check on the health of the satellite antenna for communicating with command. Seeing that it is intact I quickly type up a message for command,

" **Command Quantum again, request use of NOBLE task force at ONI Sword Base."**

I send it off and turn back to the battle looking for ways to throw the invaders out,

" _ **What would you need them for A.I.?"**_ comes the reply.

I debate a bit before sending, " **Request to open secure channel."**

A pop of static comes through before Holland's voice "Granted Quantum, what would you have them do?"

I send a text layout of the plan before narrating "If few bring them in I would send half of the team to retake the ground floor and landing pad so we can bring in more reinforcements. Then I would deploy the other half to active the backup comms station followed by the AA gun to protect it."

There is a pause as he thinks it over "Why is this base more important than the hundreds of others that are vying for my attention?" he then asks.

I pause "Sir what is your security clearance?"

"…Black05A, Why?"

"Because I wanted to make sure you had the clearance to hear this next part I say applying an even higher encryption to the channel.

I appear in the room command room with Holland easily overriding the onboard AI "Sir." I say making him turn to see me. He gives a small gasp seeing that I just essentially took control of his ship.

"Clear the room." He says, right away there is a murmur as the various technicians leave.

I nod "Do you know who I am?" I ask.

He raises an eyebrow "Of course, you are ONI AI Quantum the one that runs Sword base. Would you like to tell me why you came onboard my ship and overrode Felicity?" (The Ship's AI)

I smirk "You're partially correct. I do run sword base but that is only part of my job, I am in essence the entirety of the ONI database I know all of the dirty secrets and black projects that they do along with all of the UNSC's data."

He nods looking a little impressed "So why did you ask for my clearance?"

"Because I had to make sure it was you and that it was high enough for me to reveal this next part, but first, may I bring in NOBLE?" I ask

He nods "If it's this important go ahead."

I turn "Dot, Send them in." Dot's blue grid appears next to me before flashing and disappearing. Holland gives a grunt at that "How exactly did you know Dot?"

The smile on my purple holographic face gets bigger "Dot is me. She is a subroutine that I assign to projects of importance to me."

Holland takes this in stride "And the big secret?"

My smile drops "Alright, if you reveal this I will be forced to kill both you and the person you told... Sword base is where the majority of myself is stored. The 'Data Center' is just a façade, in reality it's the only way to get to where I am stored and it is also the main port for communication to the outside."

Holland's eyes widen "So if Sword base falls..."

I nod "You pretty much lose ONI along with myself, the 'Data Center' is made of forerunner smart metal. If triggered it will seal locking everyone out and cutting all lines to the outside. I will be safe but useless once again rendering ONI obsolete."

Suddenly a light comes back on in Sword Control, I slow time and flit back to base. I pull up the feed and Dot gives me a mental nudge feeding me Six & Two's feeds, it appears that noble knows how to do work, both the landing pad and AA gun are clear and online, they are moving to take back the backup comms.

I check Sara's feed and see she is holed up with two marine squads outside the door, I notice a TV on to her left.

 **Sara's POV**

I slide the next mag into my magnum before I pop up and sending rounds into a squad of grunts, they squeak as each of them catch one to the eye. I grin as the marines cheer behind me

"That is how you deliver a proper ' _ **Fuck Off**_ '." I call

I'm rewarded with grins and smiles all around, I brush some of my short blonde hair out of my grey eyes as I stand and check the downed grunts for grenades. I turn back to the marines and ask

"How we doin on ammo?" They give thumbs up and nods but their faces rapidly turn to wide eyes and open mouths in shock "What am I that ugly?" One of them points behind me.

I turn just in time to dodge a swipe from a Zealot's energy sword.

"OH FUCK!" I shout rolling forward under his backward knees. He roars his anger to the heavens before turning and taking another swipe, I dodge but it is very close, close enough to melt my shoulder armor. I rip my shotty off of my back holster,

"Hey Ugly! Try some of this!" I yell firing it twice into his shields before it clicks ominously.

The elite's shields break on the second shot, I flip the shotgun around ready to use it as a club before looking at the marines "Hey! Stop gaping at im' like a teenager at a strip joint and FIRE!"

They quickly do squeezing off a few bursts before ducking behind cover to reload. Meanwhile I have to dodge his next few swipes with his sword, "That all you got fuck face!?" I shout. He roars and charges me, giving me the chance I have been waiting for.

When he gets close enough I _Jump_! Summersaulting over him and while he is off balance I climb up on his back and drive my knife into the hole in her armor by his neck. With a choke he falls to the floor light quickly fading from his beady black eyes. I let out a breath of relief as the marines cheer even louder. Suddenly one of them yells,

"Captain, the TV!"

I turn and find that the TV screen mounted on the wall has changed to a light purple background with black impact text, it reads:

 **Sara put on your helmet**

I smile "Quo you sneaky devil."

I slide my RECON helmet on and the display lights up in greeting and sure enough more text pops up.

 **Quantum's POV**

 **I have NOBLE Team working on backup comms and then they will push up through the building**

I display in her visor. She nods her head in approval before walking to the slain zealot, she dips her fingers in the pool of blue blood under him and writes on the floor:

 **What do you want me to do?**

I raise my eyebrows at the gruesome sight and think a little,

"Dot what is the status on NOBLE?" I ask.

Dots grid flashes in the corner of my vision as she works "They have the comms generator online, but they are taking on Covenant reinforcements trying to reach the controls, sir." She replies.

I growl, "Well have Holland deliver them some firepower they have incoming."

I return to Sara and type:

 **Seal the forward door then take the elevator to the top floor and work your way down, sweep and clear. Possible maneuver 85? Also avoid vehicle garage, hunters in there, leave for the Spartans.**

She grins under her helmet and turns to her team. Suddenly I get an influx of comms data, it seems NOBLE has finished the reinforcements and hit the button. I raise Sara:

"We're back online." I say

"About time, I was beginning to think that you were avoiding me!" she snarks

I smile "Yea right, you'd track me down and put a bullet in me, hologram or not." I say closing the line.

I pull up the grid and find the remaining fire teams on site, there are way more than I thought if there's a Zealot running around. I raise their comms:

"Marine fireteams, Sword A.I. we have the covvies on their heels. Currently Captain Sara and NOBLE are doing a sweep and clear from top to bottom, if you meet up with them place yourselves under their command for the duration of the cleanup." I command. This is met with cheers and hooh-rahs as they rush to take on more of the invaders.

I return my focus to the hub and do some planning and recon for what the two forces will have to take on in the crush of the battle.

"Hey Sara, I got a General on the floor exactly below you." I say "Noble Six is bearing down on him so you better hurry."

I get a reply in the form of an evil grin, under her helmet. as she looks at a dropped Covenant fuel rod cannon.

 **Noble Six's POV**

Six pops three more grunts in the head before dropping behind a concrete barricade to avoid a peppering of needler fire. He stands up and rushes across the bridge, catching the jackals there by surprise, and punching them to mush with Spartan strength.

A guttural roar is heard and he turns to see a general in armor raise his fuel rod cannon.

The general never gets to fire.

The ceiling is demolished under a hail of fuel rod fire from above. The pieces of the destroyed roof crash down on the Elite trapping him under the rubble with only his chest and head showing.

Six stops in surprise as a female ODST in RECON gear drops through the ceiling brandishing a shotgun. The Elite infuriated by his predicament roars his frustration at his captor and she glances at him before shoving the barrel of the shotgun in his mouth.

"Stuff it hinge head." She says before firing cutting off the Elite.

The ODST looks up "Too slow, sorry Noble." She says running by him.

 **Quo's POV**

"Yeesh give the rookie a break Sara." I say feeling bad for the Spartan

"He got in my way." Comes the reply

The building shudders as the long swords I deployed race after the Corvette to designate a target, and soon after the building shakes as the MAC round thuds its way through the ship destroying it.

"Well that is that" I open the channel to all forces "All forces this is Sword AI, we have a victory."

Cheers ring out as the troops begin to celebrate.

 **End Flashback**

Once again I'm shaken out of the past by an alarm going off:

 **Tactile Sensor, Rear Bay Doors**

That's not good, if it was friendly they would have received the open codes for the door in the distress transmission. I pull up the clock on my system to see how long it has been since the crash

 **Time: (Forerunner Glyphs)**

"What the hell!?" I yell out loud "The FUCK is this shit!?"

It seems that there are dirty secrets that even I don't know, Shit I guess I will just let them in.

I trigger the bay doors and with a groan they open slowly, I focus a camera on the entrance waiting to see my rescuer(s). And sure enough in _clops_ a _**PONY!?**_

 **A/N:** This is a lot of fun, let me know if you enjoy this as much as I do.

P.S – Maneuver 85 will be used at another time…


	3. Chapter 3 - Through the Hole

_**You have got to be kidding me.**_

I have waited some unknown number of years for my distress beacon to hit off some installation in the middle of god knows where, and when a rescue does come it comes in the form of a colorful pony using…

A FUCKING SHOVEL!? OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!

I smash my head into the holographic display the camera is displaying. Why, just why is the world so cruel? Of all the things that I think could find me, a fucking pony using a god forsaken shovel was so low on the list it's fucking ridiculous.

The black and white camera screen doesn't help much as far as features but it appears to be a Pegasus, it has a series of packs and saddle bags along with a shovel all strapped over its back. The thing looks around, gawking slightly, taking in the cargo bay with its few cargo containers laying around. I swear it seems halfway intelligent, but with aliens you never know they could be dumb as rocks or give me a run for my theoretical money.

The pegasus takes a few steps inside the bay looking like it wanted to see more, whipping its head to and fro like it was expecting a monster to jump out of nowhere. Then again with how primitive the tech is I would guess that it wouldn't take much to qualify something as a monster here.

Seeming to overcome it's indecisiveness it begins to push forward into the derelict ship, looking for something interesting no doubt so I decide to give him the tour. I close the rear door the sound causing the pegasus to look around in panic before seeing the door seal with a hiss, the pony shrugs and pushes forth once more. I smile it's got guts I'll give it that.

It moves from camera to camera visiting the mess hall and barracks, I have to step in a few time to prevent it from coming in contact with something too sensitive (mostly by sealing doors) and eventually I direct it to the bridge. It walks (trots?) into the command center and sees yet another empty room and starts to explore, pressing buttons and moving joysticks. Eventually it gets to the pilot's chair, it walks around and finds Sara, with a whinny in terror it jumps away, clearly not expecting to find a skeleton in an otherwise spotless ship.

It leans against the console on the other side of the room eyes locked on the bones, sides heaving. Slowly the fear leaks out of its frame and curiosity returns. It moves up to the chair spotting the glint of her dog tags against the matte of the seat. It unfurls a wing and using a feather it tries to retrieve the tags. I feel protectiveness wash over me as I watch the creature reach forward to desecrate the body of my dead friend and I act. I materialize in full size form right inside the skeleton and lean forward with a yell, broadcasting the sound to all the speakers on the bridge.

It gives a humanlike shriek of terror and leaps away from the body and me, then runs for the nearest door away from the bridge. I give a slight chuckle before watching the panicked pony run from the bridge and towards the medical ward, suddenly I feel the beginning of an idea begin to float around in my head.

"Dot do we have any neural links onboard?" I ask

A second passes before I get a cargo list sent to me, I smile seeing the object I want pop up and flash in red. "Thank you Dot." I say the idea growing more refined by the second.

I return to the alien in the medical bay freshly armed with knowledge and a plan, it's lost its terror from earlier but moves warily from room to room undoubtedly looking for something once more. I watch as it moves from the recovery wing towards the operating bay with a grin on my face as the plan starts to fall into place. To push it along faster I appear in my mini purple avatar at the head of the table in front of the pegasus and wave, once again the pony shrinks back but it seems to overcome its fear now that I am much smaller. It slowly walks up to me not seeming to want to rush it before it is eye to eye with me,

"I'm terribly sorry about this." I tell it.

It… She, I can now tell, cocks her head, not seeming to comprehend what I said but that doesn't matter when I bring down a mallet on the back of her head from the surgeon bot that has been waiting above us the entire time. I sigh and bring the unconscious body of the mare up onto the table.

"Dot perform an in-depth scan of her brain and get all the information we can out of it, then see if she is compatible with a neural link." I command.

 **Flashback**

It has been some time since the battle for Sword and a lot has happened since then. I sent Sara out to scout for a Noble reconnaissance force before learning from the same force that the covenant has set up a ground base to launch from. This leads to an all-out fight the next day that Sara stayed back from to continue to protect Sword base, long story short we had a series of minor victories but in the end a covenant super carrier came in and fucked everything before starting a glassing campaign. We fought back by sending a rigged slipspace drive into a corvette, ramming it up the super carrier's ass, and detonating it.

We lost NOBLE 5 (listed M.I.A. but I know the truth) when the bomb went off due to an automatic detonator failure from damage sustained while fighting for control of the corvette NOBLE 6 was M.I.A. for a bit but popped up helping evacuate New Alexandria. Again we lost a NOBLE, 2, from sniper fire while moving to a nuke shelter. Now we have the team moving to help with a "Torch and Burn" Op at sword base but this is a façade for something else…

"Hey Sara, we got NOBLE incoming." I warn her as she sweeps the base once more.

She nods "I know, will I have to deal with babysitting duty or can we tell the straight up?"

I'm standing on her shoulder in my small purple holo for, "I don't know, they aren't aware of the true reason for their coming here, so babysitting for now."

She nods "K."

She jumps around a corner and buries her knife in an unaware Elite and it slumps to the ground with a gurgle. Sara cleans her knife off on the Elite's reddish armor, "How close?" she asks.

"I got a bunch below you in the main lobby but NOBLE should-" I'm interrupted by the sound of gunfire from below, "Beat them down." I finish.

Sara smiles under her Recon helmet as she watches "I'll give them props, they know how to bash and whack." She says. I grin back at her as the firefight ends and they reach the waypoint originally set for them. We hear the sound of argument as they begin to squabble over the faulty waypoint.

I disappear from Sara's shoulder as I go to NOBLE's feeds. I cut them off to the outside and answer a question coming from Carter in the form of Auntie Dot. I set a new waypoint for where they will actually be going and watch as they call out that it's a mile underground.

I reappear on Sara's shoulder, "Alright the stage is set we just need to start the show." I say. She nods and struts into the room filled with 7 foot tall Spartans

"Evening boys." She purrs.

As this happens I have Dot say that the new waypoint came from an A.I. with higher clearance than her. The reply from the team is the same to both statements.

" **What!?"**

They level their weapons at Sara at the same time that Noble 1 says "What AI has higher clearance than you Dot?" he says into his comm

Ahh how the clueless blunder…

I respond with Dot's voice "Why don't you ask" I shift my voice to the standard masculine voice that I use, "The one who controls her?" I say popping up on Sara's shoulder. There are nods around the room as they take in the ODST and strange purple AI that had just crashed their party, Jun is the first to speak

"Would you like to tell me how out of my depth I am now?"

I smile "I am ONI. I usually am the one working the logistics on all of your missions and strategizing ways for you to work the most efficiently." I say smartly

He nods seeming to accept that, I'll give him credit the man knows how to take things in stride. "The reason that we brought you here isn't false it was just cover for your commanders." I float over to the middle of the room and seal the door, "Once I release you from the temporary black zone I have set up in this room Dr. Halsey will contact you. She is going to have you take on a guard mission followed by an escort a VIP assignment." I hold up my hands to stop the flow of questions coming from Carter, Six, and Jun. "I will allow her to give details, I am not allowed to tell you everything." I pull up a map of Sword and the glacier nearby, "Sara and I" I gesture over to the helmeted ODST "Have taken the liberty of placing charges on all of the structural weak points." Sara tosses the remote to Emile and I look at him "I know you talk with actions not words so you're the one who gets the boom stick, what they sent you to recover was me. The way you will recover me is by providing a distraction. When you complete Halsey's mission you will draw the fire of the covenant, my data storage along with my AI matrix will be transported out on the _Blood Moon_ , a Wraith hidden under the base."

They nod seeming to understand that they're wayyy out of their depth.

"Gentlemen, I think your comm error is resolving itself, strange how no one could hear you for the past few minutes." I hint. They quickly go about the routine of calling command for an equipment failure. They soon get routed to Halsey and take up the mission that I told them about.

 **Pause Flashback**

"Sir, I have completed the brain scan." Dot says

I thank her and access the results from our resident alien pony…

"Interesting." I say, I absorb all of her memories. I learned a new language along with the fact that we are either in an alternate sector of space or in a new dimension entirely…"

"We appear to be in the land of Equestria, a land filled with "Magical" colorful ponies that come in three types. I use the term "Magical" loosely, as the magic they use appears to be forunner in nature and possibly even halfway scientific. I hand this off to Dot and have her implement the customs and habits in memory so I don't have to.

I guess we should get onto who exactly our pegasus is. After I scan her with better **Color Sensing!** equipment I find that she has a bright white coat with a wild two-toned cobalt blue and golden yellow mane and tail. She has a erm… "Cutie Mark" depicting a shovel and brush crossed over a treasure chest.

Her name is Bounty.

I grin as I comb through her memories and see her life, all the ups and downs. She was orphaned early on in life when her parents went missing, no one knew why or how they just did. Raised in an orphanage she learned what she wanted to do when a famous archaeologist came to visit her school and entertained the children with tales of his discoveries, prompting her to research the history of the town and dig up a treasure hidden in the orphanage. She used this money to finance her travels and donated the rest of it to history museums that were in danger of closing, how she learned of his ship was a different story entirely and I will leave it out for now.

 **(A/n: I will possibly include this story later if anyone is interested.)**

She had stumbled in looking for a challenge and adventure and then ended up on Quo's table for the adventure of a lifetime.

"Dot, prep the surgeon bot and turn on the lights. It's time to give her the neural interface."

 **Continue Flashback**

"So… anything interesting to talk about?" Sara asks.

I sigh, "Has anything happened since you asked that five minutes ago?"

"I dunno has there?"

The sound of my facepalm echoes across the bridge (Yes, I do have software for that, deal with it.)

We had been waiting for NOBLE team to tell us that they had started the pre-discussed plan, they make lots of noise we wait for the Covenant to follow then we give them the go ahead to blow the base. So far they had yet to start the party.

Sara was seated at the helm of the UNSC Blood Moon, a Sahara class Prowler that had been specially modified to transport me to Reach. It has been modified to run on the power of a fusion reactor due to the shear amount of energy I require to function and to still be able to meet the energy requirements for the ship's engines. The crew barrack's size had to be massively reduced and a faux wall had been erected to conceal the entrance to my data hub, this only allows for a skeleton crew to be housed while the ship is moved from place to place. On the rare occasion that I was being moved to a new containment facility the crew was told that they were moving delicate cargo and that was the reason for such an odd carrier vessel.

Suddenly the comms system rings out displaying a message from Six:

 _ **Package is away, starting the party.**_

I grin ready for more action, the problem with being moved on the Gateway was that once I was loaded on the ship I had to be connected to the new containment vessel with a hardwire. So I was effectively cut off from the outside world till I get physically plugged into my new home, the only reason I could read Six's messages was that I was integrated into the ship and therefore could read incoming messages.

"Ready to roll?" I ask Sara

"Finally ready!?" she yells excited to get moving

"Yeah, open the launch bay doors."

There is a low rumble as the huge doors slide open to reveal the open skies, coated in orange clouds from the fumes of the full planet glassing that was going on. The mood is grim as we are reminded of how the planet is slowly being consumed by ash and crystal.

Suddenly there is a screech as a squadron of banshees go by in the direction that NOBLE was supposed to be flying, their trails quickly dissipate as we lose sight of them on the horizon.

"I think it's working…" I say as Sara flicks switches on the instrument panel in front of her.

"You don't say!" comes her reply.

The yoke comes alive in her hands as the flight systems on the ship all boot up, a gentle hum as the engines fire follow by a dull roar as the afterburners clean up the thrust. There is a slight shake as the ship pushes off the ground and towards the sky, I get the chance to send off one more message to the team before we get out of range.

" **Thanks Spartan, Godspeed to you all. Tell four to light it up."**

Seconds later there is a rumble as the remnants of Sword Base is consumed in an explosion, a final blast to protect its secrets from the world and keep me hidden. Soon enough we reach the inky black of space and the engine shifts pitches to compensate for the lack of oxygen.

"And we're off." Sara says setting the course for the next UNSC rendezvous point in friendly territory. She lets go of the wheel and sighs rubbing her hands on her face and bending down allowing some of her wariness to show through.

"Sometimes I'm not sure about the universe."

"Me neither, and I've seen the scary shit that the UNSC sweeps under the rug"

She is shaken in her seat as the prowler does evasive maneuvers to avoid incoming plasma fire, "FUCK!" she yells grabbing the yoke and rolling to the left to avoid a torpedo. I pull up the sensors,

"We got a cruiser closing fast!"

Her answer is another string of cusses followed by another roll to the right. I pull up the weaponry and start pumping bullets into the smaller craft that were following the Moon.

"We got to come up with something, there's too many for us to take!"

"What about camo?" she yells

"They have a lock on us, we will have to put a lot of distance on before it will fool them!"

The sound of the shield absorbing more plasma sounds out and a screaming alarm rings out as the low shield warning flashes up on the console.

"We're not built to fight! This is a stealth carrier!" I yell over the alarm

Suddenly Sara's face lights up in a 'I have had an insane idea' look, "Remember that wormhole that we had to skirt around on the way to Reach?"

"Yea..."

"How close is it?"

"You aren't really thinking-"

"Just how close!?"

"… We can make it before the shield gives."

I mark it on the nav system and she opens the throttle wide trying to beat the shield level. As we progress the alarm for shield failure grows louder and louder before dropping to an ominous moan. I pull up status reports across the ship, "Hull integrity at 75%..."

The wormhole comes into view, a huge swirling mass of dark purple swirling around a focal black circle, slowly the thing orbits like a galaxy. More plasma bolts shake the ship,

"Hull Integrity at 50%..."

She guns the engines, trying to coax every last bit of speed out of the craft bringing us dangerously close to the center of the wormhole.

"The fighters are falling back!" I say seeing the blips reverse direction on the radar.

Sara sighs and tries to pull the ship out of the dive toward the hole in space time, I run a quick calculation and the results aren't good.

"I don't think we're going to make it out…"

As I say that the ship slowly gets dragged backwards toward the rift, the gap closing quickly.

Sara folds her head "Quo it has been an honor serving with you, I hope that you can move on after me."

I flash up in front of her in my full body form: Spikey black hair, purple eyes with white irises, dressed in jeans and a black sweatshirt, and 6 feet tall.

"Do not give me that shit! You know that we will make it and kick whatever is on the other side's ass!" I say angrily. She just gives me a weary resigned smile,

"I don't think that I will make it this time, the damage to the hull will cause oxygen leaks when the extreme pressure of the wormhole hits. I need O2 you don't."

Almost right on cue the ship gives a screech as pressure is exerted on it from the swirling hole.

"No, you will stay with me!" I yell defiantly.

Suddenly the ship gives a spin and my world goes black as power is interrupted.

 ***End Flashback***

I knock the cobwebs from my head as I pull myself from the past once again.

The mare was in recovery after I operated on her, in short I put in a specialized neural implant that is very similar to the ones Spartans receive to interface with their suits. The purpose of this one was to allow me a carrier and a messenger in the form of a living being, but I will come back to that.

"Dot how long till she wakes up?" I ask

"Five minutes give or take sir."

I nod and strap on the backpack I had put together for her, inside was various items that I thought that I would need to move around on the planet and eventually talk with the leaders. It also included an almost indestructible A.I. carrier unit that I rigged to work with a small antenna so I could act like an A.I. in the MJOLNIR armor minus the actual armor. In short, I was going to get off this damn ship after who the hell knows how long.

"Dot, I'm going to leave you behind to watch the home base." I say splitting off my faithful subroutine.

"Yes sir, any other orders sir?" she asks

I nod "No one else is to enter the ship. If they do make it in terminate them with prejudice or capture them if they are deemed non hostile. I now give you clearance up to the level just below my own." I say, making sure that a commander couldn't walk in and hijack the ship.

Suddenly the pony stirs making a soft whinny, I run it through a rough translator that I programed and get a groan sound.

"Alright Dot, put me in."

Her response comes in the form of being unceremoniously shoved out of the ship onto the smaller storage unit.

"Well that is an unpleasant change... Dot you receiving?" I ask

"The rig appears to have worked sir." Comes the reply

"Good, assume your orders till I return."

"Yes sir."

I run a quick check on all the systems one more time, and just as I finish the pegasus opens her eyes allowing me to see the world in actual color again.

"Nice." I remark to myself.

She gets off the table slowly, still woozy from the operation, and stands up stretches her wings looking around. I notice another ever so useful TV in her sight and connect to it.

 **Third POV**

Bounty smacks her lips, getting knocked out isn't pleasant but she'd had it happen before. As she takes stock of her surrounding she takes notice of the backpack she had secured to her. She pulls at it but the metal straps are tightly secured and don't budge.

Suddenly the wall seemingly begins to glow black, she turns to look at it and cautiously moves closer.

Quo looks on with a smile knowing what will come next.

The screen shows a security feed of the room she is in and her looking at the screen in the corner. Bounty looks on in wonder, having never seen something this complex still working, and gets closer to the screen.

Suddenly there is movement on the screen.

A huge Sanghelli in blood spattered armor appears a few yards behind her and lets out a petrifying roar. Bounty smashes her nose to the screen before whipping her head around to see the Elite coming at her with dual blades drawn.

She books it out of the ship.

Quo just laughs

 **Hey… Sup? I am having a blast writing this still but now I must go. The plan now is to post the chapter on A Life Taken sometime this week or next before moving my story Starting Over to this account. Go check them both out, but I must warn you not to read past chapter two on Starting Over because I am editing some of the chapters so it will be different. This has been the longest chapter I have ever written clocking in at 4k words but the next ALT chapter will be even bigger! But till then… peace**

 **\- TDB**

 **PS: Let me know how I'm doing , I'd really like to know.**


	4. Chapter 4 - The Tavern

A/N: I'd like to note that without the technology to assist, people cannot hear or see Quo. They need either a special Neural Net or a fancy pair of glasses to see him as he lacks holo projectors or speakers to use in the remarkably tech-less planet he is trapped on.

 _Retrieving…_

 _Done_

 _Decoding…_

 _Done_

 **Log day 1:**

Bounty has easily been running for five minutes straight through an upwards curving dirt tunnel, the only thing that has been passing by are the wooden supports placed every 10 to 20 feet.

I'll admit that I'm starting to feel bad for scaring the living shit out of her, but the circumstances wouldn't allow an ease into the fact that there is an alien spacecraft on her planet. Hey, I may be _slightly_ sadistic to organics, but I still care!

 **3rd POV**

Frothy Tankard had seen it all, thieves, bandits, *shudder* _the pink one_ , even a few diamond dogs had passed through his inn, but this Bounty character had taken the cake. She had come in a weeks earlier spouting off about "Alien Ship Crashes" and other such ridiculous nonsense, but now she was back. Initially he had taken her in as a treasure hunter tenant who rented a room for a few days while she poked around for information on her quarry (maybe to make some bits off gossip), but he eventually found himself becoming friends with the energetic mare.

"Froth!" she exclaimed as she ran over to the gruff inn-keeper, "You'll never believe what happened!" Frothy just shook his head "Let me guess, you found the ' _alien'_ ship…" the stallion looked at the mare's surprised face and groaned "You did… didn't you?"

Her excited face was all that he needed to see.

He let out an explosive sigh as Bounty began to tell her story, "Well I went to the approximate location of the crash, I was right, and I found an area that looked like Discord himself had stayed there a while back, I mean seriously! There was a huge crevasse where rocks along the side had MELTED! How did nopony notice that!?" Frothy held up a hoof "Slow down Bounty, you sound like that crazy pink mare that stayed here that one time. Let's move somewhere more private, no sense in having some _unsavory_ characters overhear eh?" The brown earth stallion said.

He led her to his small office-bedroom combo and, after telling one of his workers to run the front, locked the door. He sat in a chair behind a small table that he kept in the room for paperwork. "Alright" he said to the mare "Out with it."

Bounty started pacing back and forth in front of him with a gentle clip-clop of hooves on the unfinished wooden floor. "Well I suppose I should start out from when I left, I left your tavern and trekked out of the outpost and into the Blackveil forest.

I hiked for a couple of days following the directions that I got from that crazy mountain pony."

"Wait, you actually listened to him!?" interrupted Tankard.

"What else was I going to do!? I got a lead from the library and I've haven't gotten shit from anyone else! I was going on a vague mention of a ball of fire falling from the sky a long ass time ago! Why shouldn't I have followed up on it!? Disappointment is still better than nothing!" Bounty ranted

" _ **No it isn't."**_

Bounty's head snapped around "Who said that?" Bounty asked. "Said what?" Tankard replied with a confused look on his face. Bounty shook her head, "Nothing, just- hearing things." She said brushing off the voice.

"Well, let's hear the rest of it then…" Tankard said rubbing his head with a hoof and heaving a sigh.

Bounty nodded and resumed her pacing in the confined area, "So I was hiking through the forest, and I got the weirdest feeling that the forest was trying to guide me." Tankard let out a snort "No, really! I'd stop and think about giving up, and next thing I know there would be a hint, a new path or a strange piece of metallic rock. I would find them all at the seemingly right times, and they all would lead me on." Tankard just shook his head, "Anyway, I would walk for majority of the day then set up camp and sleep. It took a little over two days to find it."

"And what exactly is 'it?'" Tankard asked.

Bounty sucked her cheek, "Well it's kind of hard to explain, it was a crevasse, like I said earlier, but it wasn't a natural formation… It was too perfect. The edges of the were and exact distance apart and perfectly symmetrical. Nothing short of a beam of magic from Celestia herself would make a cut that perfect and especially not in such a strange shape-" Bounty stopped and started to puzzle over the crevasse in her head.

"Ahem… That's all good and well, but I want to know about what you found, not about the mysteries of some rocks." Tankard said, exasperatedly.

Bounty colored, "Well err, yes, of course." She mumbled "The crevasse went on for a little over 800 strides and ended when it hits a dirt wall at the base of a large plateau…" Bounty paused for a few seconds seemed to get lost in thought.

"Equestria to Bounty?" Tankard said waving a hoof in front of her face.

"What- oh- sorry about that, I was just thinking about how the plateau didn't really make sense, it didn't really make geological sense for it to just appear in the middle of a large forest. Allowing that, dirt shouldn't be able to form a sheer walls like this one…" She stopped sat down and got lost in thought once more.

Tankard groaned and rubbed his face with a hoof, if only this mare wasn't so ridiculously hard to deal with sometimes. It was like she was a cat, she would be interested for a little bit then just go off in her own little world, Wait! A cat!-

Tankard started grinning evilly as he reached into his nightstand and pulled out the squirt bottle that he used to chase the occasional stray cat out of the tavern. He tightened the spray cone and pumped the spray handle a few times.

"Gah!~"

The white pegasus's wings flared as she jumped, in her sheer surprise she overcompensated and fell backwards (landing on the strange saddle bag she was wearing). Tankard had one of his rare wide smiles on at this, he finally had a weapon that had proven effective against this mare.

Bounty rolled over (Tankard quickly put on a poker-face) and shot him a very disgruntled look "What in Celestia's name was that for!?" She shouted.

"Well it looked like your brain was going to overheat, so I had to cool you down quick." Tankard said smoothly, still holding the poker face.

Bounty grumbled some more but seemed to accept the prank, Internally Tankard smiled once more, he'd have to thank that crazy pink mare for the bottle, if he ever saw her again. "So, plateau?" he said trying to spur on the story.

Bounty shook the water droplets out of her mane and started pacing once more. "Well, I figured that if something had crashed and didn't obliterate on impact it couldn't have gone that far underground so I started digging into the wall. I put together a cart from some sticks and hauled the dirt out with that. It took 5 days of digging and about 100 strides of tunnel but I found something! It was a huge wall made of a metal that I've never seen before, I dug around it looking for a way in when suddenly the wall just _moved!_ It split open and allowed me into a large room that had these big metal bricks stacked in the corners. I started wandering around looking for any interesting artifacts or treasures, but I got the strangest feeling that something was guiding me-"

Tankard let out another snort receiving yet another glare from Bounty.

"It came in things like doors closing when I'm not near them, a couple times I turned around to go back only to find the door I came through closed. So, I just decided to push forward. There were multiple areas that I think were guard barracks but they were all empty and looked like they weren't used at all. Then I think I found an alien body-"

 _ **Nope just Sara's**_

"Shut up Tankard." She said shooting him another glare before getting confused at his surprised face, "What?" she asked. "I didn't say anything" the stallion grumbled.

"Anyway, I entered what seemed to be a control room of a sort and in the very center was a giant throne chair, I say that because it was certainly a command position, but it was really unadorned for a throne."

"Getting sidetracked Bounty."

"Right, well as I moved around it I noticed that the chair was actually occupied"

She paused for dramatic effect…

"By a skeleton… It appeared to be bipedal and lacked a tail, it had a few broken ribs but otherwise look wholly intact. As I examined it I noticed it was wearing some kind of necklace and, get this, it was made of Aluminum!" she shouted excitedly.

Tankard let out a gasp, "Really!? Did you get them!?"

Aluminum was currently very expensive in Equestria and almost everywhere else, as the largest veins were found in the badlands and everypony knew that the changelings unofficially controlled the badlands.

Bounty shuffled "Ahh not really… I started to reach for them when…" she mumbled the rest.

"What?" Tankard asked.

"…" she mumbled once more.

"What!?" he asked getting annoyed.

"A GHOST APPEARED!" she finally spit out. "A purple see-through thing surrounded the skeleton and there was a roar sound that came from everywhere!" she said looking at the floor dejectedly.

Tankard chuckles "Really a ghost? The great explorer is terrified of 'ghosts.'"

"Shut up" she says angrily "I left the room after that and ended up in what looked like a hospital room"

 _ **You forgot the screaming in terror and on the verge of losing control of your bodily functions. I really didn't want to have to clean up a puddle that ran all the way to the medical bay.**_

Bounty flushes and ignores the voice, now positive that it's just from the stress of the ship talking.

 _ **Not quite, but I can read surface thoughts.**_

"But then that's where things really go off the rails, on one of the beds is a tiny form of that purple ghost, and it _waves_ at me!" she says feeling confused.

Tankard just cranks his eyebrow up.

"No! Really! I walked up to it and pretty soon I can almost touch it, and then it talks."

Tankard's eyebrow goes even higher.

"I didn't understand it, but it looked a little sheepish. Then I got knocked out." She finishes.

"What!? Do you even know what they could've done to you!?" Tankard exclaims, breaking out of his unbelieving state.

"Nope, but I'm ok and that's what counts right now." She says preferring not to think about the dangers.

Tankard just facehoofs. "Just keep going." He says.

"Well, I wake up on the table that the purple ghost was on with a splitting headache and this fancy saddlebag on. I had to stretch the kinks out of my wings and back before I jumped down and got back to work. Then the coolest and most terrifying part comes, one of the panels on the walls starts glowing slightly. I walked over to it and it put on a moving picture of the room that I was in." she takes a breath and thinks about it more. "At first it was normal and I just kind of tried to figure out how it works, but then this 'thing' appeared in the panel. It had to be at least 7 lengths tall and had these four mandibles for a mouth and it was covered in blood spattered, red armor. It had this amazing sword that was bright blue and glowed like a lantern, and I was trying to figure out what it was when it let out this petrifying roar, it shook the room I was in." She looks down embarrassed once more.

"I kinda forgot that it was showing the room behind me… I turned around and the thing was right behind me. Needless to say I didn't stick around to make friends." She stops pacing and faces Tankard, "I ran out and the door closed behind me. I went ahead and got out of there and flew back here." She finishes.

Tankard sits there… "Are you sure you didn't just eat some really strong mushrooms?" he asks finally. Bounty rolls her eyes "Positive, I still have this bag stuck to me."

Tankard gives a look "What do you mean stuck to you?" he asks. "Well… I can't take it off, it has these kinda indestructible clips on it and nothing I do seems to damage them." She peters off. Tankard thinks about it… "Well… maybe take your finding back to the university."

Bounty belts out a laugh at that "After what they did to me!? HA! I'd rather put on a 'thought protector' helmet and give speeches on how the princesses are demons in disguise!" she says bitterly.

Tankard raises an eyebrow "You know you never told me the story behind that…" he gives her a questioning look.

"And I won't, I like to keep my secrets." She replies with finality.

Tankard shakes his head "What about that unicorn in Ponyville? She sounds like the science type." He grumbles.

Bounty made a face "Ponyville? Argh, that's even farther than Canterlot… But I suppose that it's probably the best choice." She groans covering her muzzle with a hoof.

Tankard takes a look at the clock nearby "Well it's been fun catching up with you Bounty, but I have to get back to the front before one of the girls give a free dinner for a quick lay, you're welcome to use the top room but it will be at the usual price."

Bounty nods "Thank Celestia I grabbed my bit pouch on the way out, at least this stupid pack has some big side pockets. Anyway, thanks Fro, I knew you would help me out." She says earnestly.

Frothy Tankard gives a noncommittal grunt as he leaves to return to his business. Once he gets out the door he cracks a smile, that mare… she certainly was something different.

 **Back to Bounty**

Bounty had left Frothy's office some time ago and had gone up the stairs to the guest rooms. While they weren't the most luxurious rooms she had ever seen it was certainly excellent for a small town in the west of Equestria near the Boulder Mountains.

 _ **Yeeash you really are low tech**_

Now all she had to do was get rid of this stupid voice in her head

 _ **How do you know that I'm a voice in your head?**_

"Well you know things that only I could possibly know, I mean nopony else has been to the wreck." Bounty says, suddenly glad that she had gone to her room before talking to herself.

 _ **Are you really sure?**_

"Positive."

 _ **You're going to have your mind blown then.**_

"Pft, Yea sure what-"Bounty trails off as a purple light flashes in the croner of her vision.

A/n: Sooo? How you doin~? I'm alive eh? Sorry about the wait I've gotten bogged down with more hours at work and don't get home at night till 10 some nights, but anyway next update will be A Life Taken (hopefully, writers block out the ass) so check that out if you want! Also, Chapter length… Longer, or is it good?


	5. Chapter 5 - The Encounter

Bounty whips around to find… An empty corner.

 **You don't think it would be that easy did you?**

"Now I'm seeing things… Sweet Celestia those ruins weren't good for me." Bounty grumbles as she walks tiredly over to the dusty bed.

She falls into the bed and soon enough her breathing goes deep and even.

Her purple passenger stands sentinel for the night.

* * *

"Thanks Tankard!"

After eating a great breakfast of 9-grain toast with butter along with a heaping bowl of fresh fruit salad Bounty was finally out the door and on her way. She had gotten a full night's sleep and was ready to hit the road and rid herself of the unwanted saddle bag on her back. She spread her wings and took to the clear blue sky.

If there was one thing that flying was good for it was thinking, and Bounty had quite a bit to think about. What had knocked her out on the ship? What purpose did this saddle pack have? Would the beast in the wreck still be there when she got back?

 **It wasn't a beast it was a Sanghelli Male giving a battle cry.**

And then there was the voice in her head. Was the first sign of insanity a voice in her head? Or was it holding a conversation with the voice?

 **I believe it's holding a conversation with the voice, but you're past that point anyway.**

Right.

 **Any questions about the wreck since you're so insane?**

"Just ignore it." Bounty muttered to herself as she flew onward.

It certainly didn't help that she was alone and had no one to talk to.

* * *

The pair had flown all day before Bounty had to stop for a break and some food. While she had hoped that she could reach the border of the Blackwell, but a strong headwind had slowed progress considerably. She was forced to set down and spend one more night in the Blackwell.

It was going pretty smoothly. She had made a small fire with a tinderbox, and laid out her sleeping mat. Now she was content to relax and soak up the warmth from the fire to soothe her aching flight muscles. She reached into the pack of much hatred and pulled out some berries to munch on, while the stupid thing made it hard to sleep and it was a challenge to work her wings around them, it had its uses.

 **Movement, behind you and decently sized.**

Bounty's ears perked and rotated to listen: rustling leaves, branches clacking together, a twig snaps. She leaps to her feet and whips around to face whatever was coming.

She waited…

 **Getting closer.**

A sleek orange squirrel waddled out of the brush.

"Seriously? You got me riled up for this?" Bounty straightened up from her combat ready stance.

Then the thing burst from the brush. It was quadruped on four clawed feet and covered in steel grey armor plates, where there wasn't armor a blue glow leaked out.

Bounty let out a screech, and jumped backwards. "What is that!?"

 **Aren't you not supposed to talk to the voice in your head?**

The thing let out a gargling screech before tearing off into the bushes once more.

Quantum was stunned, what Bounty didn't get from that was the raw stream of data that the creature had spat at him. He set about cleaning up what it had sent and trying to make sense of it.

Meanwhile Bounty was still freaking out, a beat that she had never seen before had jumped out of the bushes. Now too awake to fall asleep she folded up her sleeping mat and stuffed it in her pack. She kicked dirt over the fire and leaped back into the night sky, determined to escape the forest before setting back down.

Quantum managed to pull one word from the corrupted data stream.

"Keeper."

* * *

 _Three hours later…_

The Dodge Junction station never really saw much excitement, there was the occasional time that a big apple consumer would come through, but that was few and far in-between.

So when an exhausted dusty white pegasus crashed into the station, wearing a rather official looking pack, it was cause for some concern. There was immediately three ponies around her ready to help, "Are you okay dear?" asked the station's ticket vendor.

"Yes, I'm fine, I've been flying for too long is all." Bounty says, shakily standing up from the small furrow she made in the ground.

That was a bad sign, if a messenger had flown themselves silly, then there must be something important going on.

"Where are you coming from?" asked the vendor.

"Just got out of the Blackwell to the east, ran into something that I had never seen before and had to get out of there. Been flying ever since."

Those word were cause for a full scale panic, "Oh my! Dearie what do you plan to do!?"

The pegasus continued on obliviously "Well I was going to Ponyville to talk with the scholar-"

"YOU HEARD THE MARE BOYS! LET'S GET THAT TRAIN MOVIN' ON THE DOUBLE!" The vendor bellowed.

The two stallions that had hoovered nearby to help the pegasus were galvanized into action by the outburst and moved to start the fires. One, a unicorn, disappeared into the engine and indistinct shoveling sounds could be heard, the second rapped on the side of the tender and shouted "SOOT!" The sound of a chair falling over with a body still in it can be heard, a brown earth pony mare, with a black mane that is caked with coal dust, comes rushing out of the station. "Yes, sir!?" she ask.

"I need two tons of coal, double time!" the stallion orders. The mare, her mission given, tears off.

"You'll have to forgive them, they're old military types and like to act like they are still in their glory days." The vendor tells Bounty. "You really don't have to go through all of this trouble just for me." Bounty says bashfully.

"Oh nonsense! It's not a problem at all!" The ticket master says cheerfully.

Any further conversation is drowned out by the sound of a large amount of coal being funnel from a wagon into the tender by the unicorn stallion. As the noise slowly decreases it is replaced by the rumble of the train being awakened from its cool slumber. Like the first deep breaths of an awake giant it chugs to life and hisses its displeasure at being kept in place.

A conductor, his uniform rumpled and unkempt like he had just woken up, called "All Aboard!" The vendor gave Bounty a friendly shove, "Off you go Dearie! And if you meet ah' Applejack in Ponyville tell'r that cousin Screamin' Apple says howdy!"

The conductor rushes over and gently lead the mare onto the train.

"Umm, Ok I guess…" The now confused adventurer says. "Um, Thanks!" she finally calls out the window as the train screams its pleasure at being freed from its forced standstill.

The town begins to fall into the distance as the tired mare falls onto a rather comfy seat and the world begins to fade.

 **And you said that my bag isn't good for anything.**

The only reply is the soft snores of an exhausted adventurer.

* * *

Rarity sometimes wasn't the most subtle of ponies at the best of times, so when the late train rolled in and she felt a crime against fashion she didn't take it well.

"This is THE WORST…POSSIBLE…THING."

"What is Rarity?" came a little voice from the back room.

Often times this left her younger sister Sweetiebelle very confused.

Springing up from the couch that she had collapsed on Rarity called "Sweetiebelle watch the shop! I have a fashion crime to prosecute!" and ran out the door toting a sewing bag in her magic.

"What was that about?"

"I really don't know Applebloom, sometimes my sister is just weird."

"Girls! We need to get back to it, we don't want the colors to lose their pop!"

There was a clamoring of stirring noises and sloshing liquids.

"CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS DYE MAKE-" _***Sploosh***_

* * *

 **Wake up**

"But Mrs. P. I don't wana… Mrs. P?"

Bounty tried to roll over on her bed only to fall off the bench she had been sleeping on with a thump.

"I miss having a bed."

She rolled to her hooves, joints cracking into place on the way, and looked out the window at the town that was rolling up. "So Ponyville, will you be of any use to me?"

She begins walking toward the exit of the car.

 **Good luck getting that bag off**.

"If you're not going to be positive then shut up."

 **Oh-ho-ho talking to me now are we?**

"Insanity is best combated by acknowledgement."

 **You made that up just now.**

"Yup."

 **You wouldn't believe the look that the conductor is giving you.**

She looks to the confused stallion standing to the right of the door. "Sorry, the trip through the forest wasn't exactly good for my mental health." She says sheepishly.

The conductor just stares.

"Right." Bounty says as she makes a hasty exit, "Thanks for the ride!" She takes off at a gallop, hurrying to escape what was surely going to be a very awkward situation.

 **You still don't have any idea where you're going.**

"Oh for the love of-"

"Ahh, there you are darling!" came a rather refined voice, "You must simply come with me! That saddle pack clashes with absolutely everything!" A white unicorn pranced up to bounty and proceeded to invade Bounty's personal space. "A pegasus with such striking colors should only wear the highest quality clothing!"

"Erm, what?" Came the reply from the befuddled pegasus.

"Ahh, my beauty must have scrambled your brains… You. Come. With. Me. I. Get. You. Shiny." The Tailor says with a jovial gleam in her eyes.

"No thanks." Bounty says finally recomposing herself from the sudden assault on all of her senses.

"But why not? You must come with me to at least find something other than that dreadful pack." Came the whiny reply.

 **I happen to like this pack, it has been quite useful.**

"This pack has served me very well, and besides it doesn't come off anyway." Bounty says, her voice clearly carrying a 'this conversation is over' note of finality.

A note that got lost in translation.

"Whatever do you mean darling!?"

Bounty heaved a sigh "It's a long story. Short version pretty much goes: I got knocked out. I woke up with bag on. Bag is stuck to me and can't be unstrapped."

The look of horror that spread across the unicorn's face was almost comical, "Darling that is simply terrible! Come with me, I will make sure that you don't have to wear that _fashion crime_ for a second longer!"

 **You just made a massive mistake.**

There was a sudden tingle as the unicorn grabbed the pegasus in her magic and pulled her into the nearby… Tent? At least that was what it appeared it to be.

Bounty blinked rapidly trying to get her eyes to adjust to the darker interior of the shop. Once her vision adjusted, she wished that she could've stayed blinded longer.

The interior was _excessively_ gaudy _._

"Err, Miss?" Bounty asked fearing for her looks. She was unceremoniously dropped onto a couch while the unicorn looked through a nearby chest.

"Oh! I never told you my name!" The unicorn said straightening up. She turned around and gave a curtsy, "My name is Rarity, and I am Ponyville's resident fashionista." Rarity turned with a flourish and continued looking through the chest.

"Well Ms. Rarity-"

"Sweetiebelle! Have you seen the blue pack that I had stored away!?" Rarity called over Bounty's question.

There was no reply.

"Hmm, she must have gone out with her friends again." Rarity muttered, "No matter, let's just get that pack off you." She says turning back to Bounty.

 **Heh. Right.**

Rarity surrounded the pack in her indigo glow, "Hmm, it appears that it is seamless…" She mumbles to herself.

"See I told you that it doesn't come off." Bounty grumbles, trying to free herself from Rarity's magic grip.

Rarity doesn't hear or pretends not to. "I guess we could apply some brutish force …" She says still talking to herself.

 **Right, those straps are made with smart steel thread and reinforced with braided ceramic cables. They're attached with a space grade adhesive that is used to patch cracks in portholes. That isn't coming off without my say so.**

"Wait, your say so?"

"Hmm? What did you say darling?" Rarity asks looking up from her work.

"Nothing, just thinking out loud." Bounty mumbles it wasn't a total lie, she was thinking on something. Just not what Rarity thought she was thinking about.

"Well, I'm going to apply some force to a small section and test the material strength."

The glow surrounding the bag shrinks down to a small section on the right foreleg. A pair of glasses flies over and slides on Rarity's snout, "Alright here we go."

The surrounded area glows brighter and Rarity begins to visibly strain. The area begins to stretch slightly and Rarity moves closer to inspect the area. She grunts and strains a little harder, suddenly the area begins to glow red.

Rarity lets out a gasp "That isn't supposed to happen!" The strap only has a little clearance between hot steel and fur, so it's not big surprise when some fur begins to smolder.

"hot, Hot, HOT, **HOT!** " Bounty cries, valiantly trying to blow out the smoldering fur.

A flower vase flies off a nearby table and is upended over the smoldering fur. Bounty breathes a sigh of relief when it soothes the affected area, "Let's not do that again." She says.

"Agreed" Rarity says with a titter.

"Well, it's still there." Bounty says, still slightly disappointed after the ill-fated attempt.

"Yes it is." Rarity replies giving the bag the stinkeye.

"I guess you don't get to sell me that bag after all, thanks for trying." Bounty says sullenly.

"Actually darling, I might have a friend who can help." Those words make bounty look up hopefully. "I happen to know a unicorn scholar that lives nearby."

"And you think she can help?"

"Darling she's Princess Celestia's prized pupil."

* * *

A/N: So how's life?... I have another one coming up, but I'm leaving for an island in the middle of a lake so it won't be coming till late next week. Did anyone catch the Plot development in this chapter!?

P.S. Check out Tracer vs Scout Rap Battle and My Apocalypse by JT Machinima. I was listening to both of them while writing and they're awesome.


	6. Chapter 6 - Falling Apart

*Knock Knock*

"Twilight darling are you in there!?" Rarity called, rapping on the door.

 **What a coincidence, the first pony we meet knows the pony we're looking for.**

 _Well, Ponyville is a small tight knit town. It's not much to think that ponies would go to each other for help._

Rarity had lead bounty and her cargo to a tree in the middle of the town. Apparently it was the library and the residence of the Unicorn named "Twilight." They had exchanged idle chit-chat and Rarity had discovered Bounty's name.

"Are you sure that she's in there?" Bounty asked out loud.

"Twilight is always in here with her snout stuck in a book, she doesn't get out often." Rarity replied still rapping on the door.

"I'm coming hold on!" a voice comes from inside.

The clicking of footsteps echoes from inside and the tree and the door open to reveal a small purple and green dragon.

"DRAGON!" Bounty cried, her wings snapped out and she their extra propulsion to tackle Rarity out of the way.

"Stay down!" She cried, making a full 360 to watch the drake carefully. Her wings out to make herself look bigger, Bounty faced off with the scaled denizen of Tartarus. She let out a low growl "What are you doing so far out of your lands before the migration creature? Are you a forward scout!?"

"Er, what?" came the reply from the "creature"

Rarity jumped from behind Bounty "Bounty wait! It's only Spike!"

"What?" came her confused reply.

"That is Twilight's assistant!" Rarity said to the riled-up pegasus.

"Hmph, sure he is." Bounty grumbled slowly closing her wings. "The only reason that a dragon would be living among ponies would be to find what they could steal. Then the rest of the horde came to wipe the town off the map." She continued eyes flickering with hate.

Looking rather angry smoke began to leak from his nostrils, "So you immediately assumed that I'm like every other dragon?"

"Spike you know that not everypony is as accepting as others." A magenta unicorn, with a blue and pink striped mane, stepped into the light revealing a cluster of stars and a cutie mark. Twilight turned on Bounty, "But that doesn't mean that it is ok to just immediately try and beat down every dragon you see."

Bounty snorted, "I have my reasons, and the scars to go with them." She says steadfastly.

Rarity break in to try and broker some peace, "Twilight, Bounty here needs some help with the pack she is currently wearing."

Twilight's scowl turns into a look of confusion "Why would you need help with a pack?"

Rarity jumps on the opportunity to break out of the awkwardness, "Well why don't we go inside and talk about it like civilized ponies?"

Twilight's face jumps between the scowl and a look of curiosity, but the curiosity wins out "Yes, please come in." She says grabbing Spike in her magic and whispering something in his ear, the dragon nods and scampers off deeper into the library.

Twilight sits down in a chair and pulls two couches over for her two other guests "So a pack?" she directs at Rarity.

"Well yes, I ran into her and thought that she would look absolutely amazing in a saddlebag that I made a while ago. I brought her into my shop and then she informed me that that pack doesn't come off. Then I did a fabric test on one of the front straps, I exerted force on a small part and found out something interesting." Rarity looks at Bounty, "Sorry about this darling." She grabs the pegasus in her magic and slides her over in front of Twilight.

Rarity stands up and trots over to where Bounty is held, "This isn't fabric, it is some kind of woven metal. Where the straps meet the bag it is sewn with more of the metal and some kind of super adhesive." She says pointing to different parts of the bag as she talks.

Twilight frowned, "And what makes you think it is metal and not some super strong composite fabric that hasn't been released yet?"

Rarity shook her head, "When I put force on it, it began to heat up instead of stretching. Bounty can attest to this fact with the singe marks on her coat." She says with a small smile.

Twilight looked at the white pegasus "And where exactly did this pack come from? More important why did you put on a pack that doesn't come off?" she asks with a confused look.

Released from the telekinetic field bounty sits down and gives them a serious look "What I am about to tell you cannot leave this room." She says. "I am an archaeologist working on a top secret dig and the details haven't been published or made public yet."

The last of the mistrust on Twilight's face is replaced by a look of crazed excitement "Really!? Now I have to know!"

 **That is the most terrifying face I have ever seen.**

Rarity shakes her head at the scholar before a contemplative look takes over her face, "You know you never really told me the full story of how you got stuck with that bag…"

Bounty trots over to the couch she had been lounging on previously, "Well it is a long story, so get comfortable. It started when I got a lead on a 'crash site'-"

"What do you mean-"

Bounty holds up a hoof and Twilight falls into a meek silence, "Please save all questions for the end. As I was saying…"

* * *

"And then I ran from it and out of the ship. I returned to the little inn and decided to come to you for help, as you seemed like the nice sort from what I'd heard."

Bounty conveniently left out the run-in with the glowing blue armored creature because she still wasn't sure what to make of it.

Twilight, who had taken everything remarkably well, finally got to ask questions. "So you discovered an alien ship?"

Bounty nodded.

"And it was still somewhat functional?"

Affirmative again.

"You are either on the cusp of the greatest scientific discovery since fire, or you are a few screws short of being firmly anchored in reality." Twilight finished with a dead serious look on her face.

Rarity, who had been skeptical all the way through the story stood up "Well I wish you both the best of luck, but I have afternoon appointments to keep. Ta-ta!" and with that she pranced out the door.

Bounty let out a sigh, "She doesn't believe me." she said looking down.

Twilight nodded, "I'm not sure that I believe you either, but I will help you get that bag off."

Bounty hopped up out of the chair and started jumping up and down in excitement "Thankyouthankyouthankyou! You have no idea how uncomfortable this thing is!" she said ecstatically.

Twilight smiled "No problem, follow me." she said before turning and leading the way to a set of stairs downward, "Spike I'm going to be working in the lab!" she shouts before she begins descending.

Bounty's smile wavers slightly when she remembers the dragon nearby, but it doesn't ruin her good mood.

They both come into a lab of beeping blinking machines, "So what do you plan to do?" Bounty asks, curious.

"Well I plan to see if the pack has a magical signature, then depending on if it does I will take an x-ray and we'll find out what's inside. While the x-rays develop I plan to do a whole bunch of tests on the material it is made out of." Twilight says over her shoulder as she pulls a sensor array over.

"Now this might tingle a little."

After several tests that did a whole lot more than "tingle," a small machine let out the _toot-toot_ of a train whistle as it began to spew a long string of data-filled papers. Twilight grabbed the slowly growing stack of papers and scanned it slowly.

"Oh my!.." She said trailing off.

"What!?" a rather singed and beat up Bounty galloped over and asked.

Twilight brandished the paper with an X-ray of Bounty's skull "It appears that there is some sort of device installed in your skull. It connects to your optical nerve along with a lot of other regions including your auditory nerve."

Bounty sat down stunned.

Twilight pulled back the paper and took a second look, "I don't think it is worth trying to remove, as it doesn't appear to be doing any damage and would be a challenging and possibly deadly procedure."

"So you mean I have metal in my brain?" Bounty asks.

Twilight nods looking back down at the paper "What is more interesting is what you have inside a large sealed pocket in the bag." She says passing the Magical Imaging Scan to Bounty with a smile.

Bounty takes a long hard look at the MIS before looking back up "So what exactly am I looking at?"

Twilight's smile grows "I don't know." She says excitedly.

Bounty rubs her temples, "So lemme' get this straight, I have metal in my brain touching numerous important parts of it and a bag with a hidden pocket full of unknown items of alien origin?" She asks.

"Yep!"

Bounty groans and lets her head fall into her hooves.

"I do have good news though!" Twilight says, trying to raise Bounty's spirits.

"What?" Bounty grumbles, head still in hooves.

"I've discovered how to remove the bag!"

Bounty jumps to her hooves, troubles temporarily forgotten, "You mean I can finally get this stupid pack off of me!?" she exclaims excitedly.

In his hidden pocket in a certain stupid pack, Quantum begins to get nervous.

"Yep! When I looked at the composition sheet there is a small deviation in the middle of the strap from a steel alloy of to a slightly weaker version one that shows signs of having been heated very quickly many times. I took the MIS of the straps and checked what is in that position and from there I pieced together that inside the metal straps there are special little thingies that appear to lock the straps via a spot weld. To release they rapidly heat to cut the weld cleanly leaving the straps in two sections. It is actually quite ingenious and would work quite well in hoofcuffs if we could replicate them." Twilight finishes her explanation and stares at Bounty with an 'I found the answer' happy smile on.

"So how do we take them off?" Bounty asks.

"Well since the energy scan turned up blank on that part of the bag, so I assume I will just send a small shock and see what happens." Twilight answers, leaning down and charging up her horn.

"Wait!"

"Hmm? Yes, what?" Twilight asks surprised at being interrupted.

"What do you mean 'That part of the bag'?" Bounty asks.

"Well in the hidden pocket there appears to be some kind of energy signature. It is faint, almost as if it is behind some kind of shield spell, but it is there and it fluctuates dramatically." Twilight answers.

"Well is there any chance that the shock could damage that item? If there is an energy signature that means that there is a functioning artifact in there and that would be a huge discovery!"

Twilight draws back to think "Well…" you could almost see the gears turning in the scholar's head, "I don't think it would, if the bag is made up of a metal alloy it would have to have some kind of dispersal system in it. Otherwise every time that you happened to shock it with built up static it would damage everything inside of it." The unicorn finally answered.

Quantum was now very worried and slightly impressed, not only had the unicorn managed to discover how the straps functioned, but she had managed to figure out a way to both release them and do it without harming anything in the bag (As there was indeed a static discharge dispersal system built into the pack.) Thankfully there was almost no chance that she could release the locks just by shocking the exterior of the pack.

"OK, well… Let's give it a shot." Bounty says unsure.

Twilight's horn reignited and dropped to the strap. As the charge built up all of the white pegasus's fur and mane began to stand on end before there was a _**ZAP**_ and a _**SNAP**_ as the straps released.

"Uh-oh" Quantum muttered as time seemed to slow for him. While the odds of an electric shock to the outside of the pack triggering the release were simply astronomical the one time that it had mattered was the time that he happened to need them to stay sealed. He began to think of a backup plan, if he lost direct contact with Bounty he would be stranded without a means of communication. The pack only had limited gyro sensors and a next to useless recovery beeper. Short of throwing himself at the mercy of the locals he couldn't think of a plan that would have a favorable outcome.

He didn't want to be alone again.

"Yes!" Bounty crowed as the straps released.

"Wait!" A masculine voice called as she stared to slip the pack off. A tall bipedal figure appeared in front of her, it was purple and see-through with a patch of short fur on top of its head.

"YOU AGAIN!" Bounty cried jumping back, the pack staying on somehow

A very confused purple unicorn stared at the pegasus glaring at thin air.

"Please don't take the pack off!" Quantum pleaded.

"And why shouldn't I!?" Bounty asked holding the pack in her wings protectively. It was a good question, Quantum racked his memory trying to find a good answer. Bounty took the hesitation as an inability to answer and continued. "Last time I saw you I was knocked out, had something put in my brain, and I woke up with this stupid pack strapped to me!"

"Because if you take it off you condemn me to a fate worse than death." He replied desperately.

"Good!"

Twilight wasn't sure if this pony was quite sane, she appeared to be having a quite animated one sided conversation. "Err 'Bounty' what exactly is going on?" she asks.

Bounty points to the air and yells "This plot-hole is the one that stuck me in this damn pack!"

Twilight cocks her head "Who?"

"HIM!" Bounty yells pointing angrily at nothing.

"She can't see me." Quantum supplies, "The only reason you can see me is that 'metal' in your head. It's a neural net, it allows people, or in this case ponies, to see and hear me along with various other built in functions."

"Wait, you mean that only I can see you! Do know how insane I must look right now!?"

"Yes, and-" Quantum's brow creases "Dodge left!" he shouts.

Bounty drops to the ground and rolls left narrowly avoiding a spell. She leaps to her hooves and glares at the unicorn that cast it, "What the hay Twilight!?" she yells.

Twilight, who now looks very nervous, backs up with her horn still glowing.

Quantum disappears from view "She's charging a sequence of three, get ready to jump straight up and fly!" he calls out.

"I'm really sorry about this, but I don't know how the artifact is effecting you!" Twilight apologizes.

Three bolts come out of her horn at once as a scatter burst, Bounty jumps straight up and flaps her wings once avoiding the shots. Unfortunately, this makes her drop the bag that she was holding in her wings seconds before. The bag, containing a certain AI, flies out of her grasp and with a thunk bounces off the wall of the lab and behind some lab equipment.

"You don't need to do this Twilight!" Bounty calls landing behind some cover. She looks at the machines and coils her muscles preparing to jump for the bag once more, she jumps.

The sound of a spell hitting flesh fizzles out and Bounty hits the floor.

"SPIKE! I NEED YOU TO TAKE A LETTER!"

Then everything goes dark.

* * *

 _Dear Princess,_

 _I currently have a pegasus archaeologist by the name of Bounty incapacitated in my home. I was assisting her with removing a bag that had locked itself onto her, it was an artifact from a dig that she was exploring. After some vigorous scans I discovered that some kind of metal apparatus had been implanted in her brain, and the bag contained multiple artifacts along with one with an active energy signature. We were able to release the straps and this is where it began to strange._

 _Bounty began to talk to something that see could only see. It became a quite heated conversation in which whatever she was talking to pointed out that I couldn't see it. Since I had no way of telling if this thing that Bounty was talking to had any hostile intentions I attempted to knock her out. Somehow she was able to dodge the first blast so I tried again. The second time I used a scatter knockout spell, it was as if she was able to tell exactly where I was going to fire and she dodged once again. While she was able to dodge it the pack containing the artifacts was separated from her. She immediately was unable to dodge any further shots that I fired and was dropped only seconds later._

 _Twilight Sparkle_

Princess Celestia lowered the letter from her student. "Lieutenant Gilded Skies."

A tall unicorn guard in Solar Armor at the base of the throne turned to look at the princess.

"Yes Princess?"

"I need you to recover something since Shining Armor is needed here. There is a pegasus by the name of Bounty at the Ponyville library, retrieve her and the package that my student will give you when you arrive. Take the pegasus and put her in the Dungeon, and put the package in a DMAC (Dangerous Magical Artifact Containment) unit."

"Yes princess."

"Treat the pegasus with respect, as we only need to hold her in the dungeon until my niece's wedding is over and the threat against it has been handled."

"Of course princess."

Gilded Skies came from a military background and had devoted his life to his princess. He had started military training as soon as he was of age, graduated officer's school top of his class, and had served his princess for well over 15 years with hundreds of missions under his belt. By all means this was a simple mission to add to that total.

He rode in a chariot with two pegasi solar guards pulling it, Scorched Earth and Golden Bracers.

"ETA!?" He called over the rushing wind.

"Five minutes Sir!" Came the shouted reply.

He relaxed, this would be just like every other mission.

Soon Ponyville came into view and the pegasi landed the chariot with a rattling thump. Gilded jumped out of the chariot and knocked on the door to the library three times. The door opened and the princess's student stood there.

"Oh please come in!" she said cheerfully. Gilded entered and let the door shut before he spoke.

"The sun may set but it will always rise once more."

Twilight visibly deflated "Thank goodness you're here. Bounty is knocked out on the couch, the spell should keep her out for at least three more hours, I was told to give you this." She held a black bag with five silver-ish straps out to him. The guard pulled the DMAC out of his magic storage and slid into the bag into it.

Twilight grabbed a picnic basket and nodded to the guard "Now if you'll excuse me I have a picnic to go to."

Gilded Skies grabbed the pegasus and towed her behind him gently placing her in the rear of the chariot along with the sealed DMAC. The pegasi took off back toward Canterlot.

Another mission success, he would never disappoint his princess.

Too bad she wasn't his princess.

His eyes flashed blue as he communicated with The Hive.

" _Tell the queen that I have an item of interest in my possession."_

* * *

Bounty comes to with a wheezing cough, from what little she can see she is in some sort of cell. There is a cot hung on the wall and a bucket in the corner paired with some straw for doing the dirty business. The front of the cell is made up of iron bars with a door built in, it looks out on a hallway with cells across the way. The air is damp and chilly, but not so bad for an explorer like her that had been through some pretty nasty caves.

"Hello!?" She called.

The faint clip clop of hooves can be heard and they steadily grew louder as the pony grew closer.

Bounty rolled to her hooves in the small space that was her cell. She shook out her body before looking back at her wings, yup they badly needed to be preened.

A light grew steadily stronger with the sound of a walking pony and soon enough a guard in golden armor stopped in front of the bars. "Yes miss?" the guard asked.

Bounty cocked her head at him "Why exactly am I being held here? What charges have been raised against me?" she asked curiously.

"You are being held here temporarily as per the demand of her majesty Princess Celestia. No charges have been raised, but there are questions about the nature of the artifact you recovered." The guard answers robotically.

"Why do I need to be held in a cell then?" She asks.

"There has been a threat made against Equestria-" The guard stops and looks back down the hall as a clang is heard from the direction he came from. "Hold on one second." He says, he begins walking back where he came from.

He barely gets out of sight before the sound of a spell being cast reaches Bounty, a sickly green light flares down the hall and the sound of a helmet hitting the ground and rolling followed by a wet splat echoes down to Bounty's cell. The clicking sound of hoofsteps begins coming closer.

And closer…

And closer…

Before a large black shape walks into Bounty's view. It has glowing blue eyes, a black armored chitinous carapace leading to hooves with holes in them, a frill in place of its mane, along with bug like wings, and a curved horn.

"Changeling." Bounty hisses at the shape.

The changeling's horn glows once more and fires a spell at the pegasus huddled in the corner farthest away from the door. It fires its spell and Bounty attempts to dodge, failing due to the confined quarters, it connects and slowly slime begins to creep over her vision and everything goes black.

* * *

Quantum was alone.

It was dark.

He could see nothing.

It was silent.

He could hear nothing.

There were no tasks for him to complete.

He couldn't distract himself.

He was alone…

Again.

"I'm alone" he muttered. His matrix beginning to fragment under stress.

"I'm alone"

"Nothing too bad, I managed to handle it on the ship well enough..."

"I'm Alone"

"Not like it mattered too much it was a long shot that this crackpot plan would work anyway…"

"I'mAlone"

"It'sjustme."

"I'maLonE"

"I'mOK."

"I'mal0Ne"

"I'mAl0n3"

"1'w L()n$"

 _ **Warning AI Matrix Unstable**_

"/;&lq^#"

 _ **Infinite Loop Protection Activated**_

 _ **Recovery Beacon Activated**_

 _*beep*_

 _ **Activating Low Power Mode.**_

 _*beep*_

 _*beep*_

 _*beep*_

 _ **End Log**_

* * *

 **A/N:**

Well that when to shit quickly.

But, you can't exactly plant technology in people's brains these days without telling them anyway, so eh. What did you expect Bounty to just go "OK" and then everything is all daisies and fluffy kittens?

The plot thickens!

I wanted to say that (Auto-correct tried to change that to pot for some reason)

Hoo baby a 4k word chapter I must be going crazy. Anyway like, review, tell me I'm a horrible person, ect.


	7. Chapter 7 - Reawakening

The drip drip of water falling from the ceiling of the cave can be heard. The only source of light is a sickly green glow that throws harsh shadows against the walls of the tunnel. Each time the glow illuminates the walls, a hissing sound can be heard before a harsh zap cuts it off.

Suddenly, the click of chitin on stone can be heard as a shape begins to move down the tunnel. Harsh buzzes and chirps can be heard until finally the light picks up once more revealing a changeling.

But not just any changeling, this one stands a good two feet over its hive mates. It possesses teal silk, making it look like it has a mane and tail, and a long crooked horn above eyes with cat-like pupils. Indeed, Queen Chrysalis walks down the tunnel. Her posture radiates control as she surveys the damaged remains of her children.

Shortly after the failed Battle of Canterlot, she and her hive had been tossed out of the city and into the borderlands of Equestria. The queen, faced with the knowledge that the safety of hive may have been compromised after she made her intentions known, made the decision to relocate to a cave in between The Badlands and the Everfree Forest.

The Hive was dying.

The emotions that they fed on were becoming few and far in-between with the xenophobic equestrians recognizing the imposters much more frequently. And with the Infiltrators coming back with less and less, the queen had to make a choice. Indeed the Battle of Canterlot was the last nail in the coffin for Chrysalis's Hive.

It was supposed to be a simple take-over.

The queen would come in and incapacitate Shining Armor and shortly thereafter her hive would come in and feed off all of the joy and happiness that came with the wedding. Once The Hive had enough emotions stored up they would leave Canterlot dispersing an amnesiac behind them to make the ponies forget they were ever there.

But no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, or in this case, food source.

So here she was, the great Chrysalis brought to her knees by prancing ponies. Or so they thought, indeed while she may have been defeated her infiltrators had managed to acquire DMAC that was on its way to the sisters and acquire it and the pony that came with it.

Her clicking hoofsteps stop as she comes before the source of the light.

Before her are the last of her scientists, four of them, grouped around a crystal cube.

"Any progress on the DMAC?" The Queen asks

"Yes my Queen, we have made it about halfway through the seal. We expect to breach it at some point in the next hour." A drone replies.

"And what about her?" The queen asks pointing to the slime cocoon tossed against one wall.

Inside was the shape of a pony reaching toward the outside of the cocoon almost as if lashing out.

"We've had no use for her yet, my Queen."

The queen _harrumphed,_ "See to it that she becomes of some use yet."

* * *

Bounty was quite enjoying her nap. She hadn't had a proper soft bed since before she took off for the Blackveil.

 _*beep*_

Now if only that Celestia-damned beeping would stop.

* * *

"It's a sack."

"It has shiny bits on it though"

"Well what exactly does it do that it needs a DMAC?"

"I dunno."

The four scientists were grouped around the newly opened DMAC and the rather boring object inside.

"Does anyone have enough energy for a scanning spell?"

"I think I can help with that." The queen purred startling the four scientists into a bow. "Oh get up you imbeciles, it is time to see what this was all for."

A sinister green sprouts from Chrysalis's horn, illuminating the crazed grin on her face. The spell takes effect and the grin immediately dies, "What!" she cries.

"What is it my Queen!?" A scientist cries excitedly.

"NOTHING!" Chrysalis roars, "THERE'S NOTHING MAGICAL IN THIS DAMNED BAG AT ALL!" Overcome with anger Chrysalis flings the offending object away before lighting her horn as if to obliterate something. Then she pauses and slumps over defeated. She looks to a nearby drone, "Inform everyone that we will have to go on survival rations for the time being."

The Queen straightens her back, now was not the time to show defeat. Her children were relying on her and she would not let them down now. She turns to the scientists, "Take the pony to the nursery, we will need her to keep the nymphs alive." The scientists nod their heads before turning to fulfill their duties only to let out a gasp.

The cocoon has ruptured, leaving green slime and a single white feather on the floor to mark her passing.

* * *

 **Active UNSC signal detected**

 **Attempting connection with asset... done**

" _Attention UNSC asset callsign PNY"_

"Shaddup Mom, five more minutes." Bounty gurgles.

" _PNY there is a top-tier ONI asset nearby signaling for immediate recovery."_

"Screw off, come back during business hours."

...

Wait, business hours? Bounty's eyes shoot open only to see the murky green of slime. ' _The changeling,'_ she thought grimly while attempting to swim around inside the pod to get a better bearing on her situation. Much to her dismay, the shell holding in all of the slime was only translucent limiting her vision to only a few feet.

But that was enough to spot the bag.

It seemed to be the exact same as it was before she got knocked out. In the top right of her vision " **HUD Initializing** " flashed several times before her vision lit up with a compass bar. ' _What?'_ she thought turning her head briefly, seeing the text change to face her new heading. ' _Well neat-o, guess I'll never get lost again.'_ The white pegasus turns back to the bag once more; only to have the text " **Asset Located** " flash in her vision. She cocked her head as the bag flashed with a yellow outline, ' _I suppose I may as well grab it, I'm already in this far.'_

Then she discovered a new problem, she was stuck in the pod. No matter how much she struggled the gelatinous goop around her wouldn't let her move close to the barrier separating her from the outside world.

Bounty ruffled her wings angrily, not content with being in a pod until the 'lings decided otherwise. Slowly an idea blossomed in her head and she brought a wing up to her mouth and grabbed one of her longer primaries in her teeth. She gave a strong yank and pulled the feather out, wincing at the pain. She grabbed the main part of the father with her wing and slashed the outer shell of the cocoon with it, leaving a long tear.

She slowly swam toward the edge and ungraciously flopped onto the floor. She pulled in a deep breath and had to silence violent coughs as slime was forcefully ejected from her lungs. She looked around warily, spotting a nearby light source she crouched low to the ground and listened. The angry hissing and chittering from nearby gave away what was sure to be a fairly large group of changelings. She located the nearby alien pack and poked it repeatedly.

"Hello? Alien dude?" she hissed.

There was no response.

"I could really use a little help right now."

The cold pack didn't respond

"Great," Bounty mumbled. She grabbed the pack in her hooves and shook it slightly. Suddenly " **Motion sensors linked initializing…** " appeared in the bottom corner of her vision. Then a series of concentric circles with a yellow dot in the middle appeared in the bottom corner of her vision. A pulse came out from the yellow dot and a number appeared next to the circle ticking up from 0 to 50 meters. The pulse began to repeat intermittently highlighting red dots that were in the direction of the light.

"Hmm…" Bounty mumbled, "Really wish I could see better so I would know what was going on."

 **Night Vision Activated**

The room suddenly started glowing green as Bounty looked around, shocked. "Handy" she murmured, spotting changelings much too close for comfort. She tucked the bag under a wing and began to move silently towards a nearby opening in the tunnel leading deeper in the cave. After a few heart-pounding moments she was safely hidden inside the side tunnel, and not a moment too soon, as she hear angry hisses and buzzes coming from her previous location. She takes this as her cue to keep moving and follows the tunnel farther down.

"Where is an alien when you need him…" She mumbles. The tunnel that she took seems to lead deeper under the earth, exactly what she didn't want. Nonetheless she continues to follow the winding tunnel.

Till it becomes a dead end.

"Well, shit." she grumbles, making to turn around. This is when everything goes horribly wrong. The stone floor under her gives an ominous crack, just as faint buzzing can be heard from her escape route. "Shit shit shit!" she shouts forgetting stealth in her rush. Visible fissures run through the floor before the ground gives a crack and the floor disappears from under her.

* * *

The two changelings checking the hall hear an exclamation before the floor begins to shake. A cloud of dust blasts into the room followed by a roar. The two move quickly down the tunnel only to find the end blocked off with freshly fallen debris.

One chitters at the other before they turn and hurry to inform their queen of the turn of events.

* * *

Much to her surprise Bounty wasn't crushed beneath tons of rubble. Even better yet, she had been dropped into a much larger cavern. She quickly transferred the pack to her hooves and spread her wings, gliding down to the floor, and landing lightly as to not drop another floor.

With her night vision enhanced eyes she peered around the room looking for a for a way out, but instead discovered something else. It was some sort of odd rock formation that jutted up from the ground, but that wasn't it, it seemed too… unnatural. As she drew closer to the monolith the pack resting on her back began to vibrate slowly, almost as if expecting something.

She stopped in front of the monolith and took in its strange design. It appeared to be made out a shiny metallic substance, and almost as if sensing her presence, light began flowing up lines in the side.

"Well what do I now?" she asked out loud. She slid the pack off her back, allowing it to land on the ground with a low thud. "Wait," she said, "Alien thing plus alien bag…" On a hunch she set the bag on top of the monolith and waited for something to happen.

Of course nothing happened.

She sat there dumbly for a few seconds more before poking the bag a few times trying to get a reaction. "Hello? This thing on?" she asked.

The bag just fell off its perch.

"Well damn." she mumbled sitting next to the bag. ' _Wait, it's a bag!'_ she thought. She grabbed the bag on both sides and pulled, _hard_. But the bag remained unyielding, she stopped for a breather before trying once more. Again, no cigar. She pulled even harder and shouted "Come on! Just _OPEN_!"

The bag cracked open with the sound of a zipper and Bounty flew backwards, head over hooves, comically. She jumped to her feet and rushed over to the bag, eager to check out her discovery. Inside were a few oddly shaped items and a couple pairs of what looked like glasses. Bounty harrumphed and continued to shuffle through the bag, looking for and other pockets.

Then she found it. Inside a velcroed compartment was a glass tube with metal ends that contained a transparent ball, flickering between light purple and grey. "Gotcha." she cheered, moving back to the monolith; abandoning the bag for now. She set the tube horizontally on the monolith and waited once more.

After a few seconds, the top of the pedestal opened up like a shutter revealing an empty port. Bounty took notice of the handle on top on the tube and snaked a hoof through it orienting it vertically. "All or nothing, I guess" she muttered before shoving the tube in the port.

With the flickering purple light sheathed inside the monolith Bounty sat on her haunches and waited.

* * *

 _ **New connection detected…**_

 _ **Bringing core functions out of stasis…**_

 **ERROR:** _ **Matrix unresponsive.**_

 _ **Signalling for technician…**_

 _ **Datastream received: Applying changes...Done**_

 _ **Attempting to restore matrix…**_

 _ **AI Matrix Online.**_

...

"What happened?..."

...

"And what the hell am I connected to!?"

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **You don't want to know what happened to delay this for so long.**


	8. Chapter 8 - Recovery

One thing was certain, waiting was boring as all Tartarus. Bounty had been sitting on her flank for about half an hour now, yet nothing had really happened. She had given the purple tube the benefit of the doubt when the monolith had adjusted to accept the tube, but after five minutes she attempted to pull it back out, only to find that it was locked in. Both disappointed and infuriated she had slumped down with her back against the object.

"This sucks." She muttered.

"Tell me about it," said a familiar voice.

"Oh Luna, how I hate caves. They always mess with you, pockets of cave gas and the like…" Bounty ruminated.

"Actually the air in here is surprisingly clean for a buried relic. It is actually 38% oxygen, higher than earth's atmosphere."

"Wait, that isn't something I would know…" She mumbled.

"No, it isn't."

Bounty slowly turned to faced the monolith that now had a small softball-sized purple ball floating over it. "Well it certainly took you long enough." She wasn't even surprised; in fact,

She was quite angry at the alien. "I mean first you strap yourself to me like some tentacled parasite, then you abandon me when I actually need you!" She cried.

There was a pause as the ball hovered and a 'bwoop' sounded as the ball cocked its head. Then there was another pause, "I strapped myself to you for survival purposes, and it was commensalism not parasitism." Quantum said neutrally

"Abandoned!"

Another pause, "I was thrown from range of your neural net, I cannot help what I cannot connect to."

Bounty's brow creased as she processed the answers, "So, you're telling me that you have to be in almost direct contact with me to communicate?" She asked with a quizzical look.

Pause, "Correct."

Bounty's face quickly changed into curiosity as her inner archaeologist took over. "Well what are you exactly? You fit inside that tube and you give off no life signs on magical scans..."

The A.I. paused once more before answering, "I am ONI AI 2367A. I have been designated 'Quantum.'"

Bounty frowned before asking something that had been nagging at her, "What is up with the gaps between me asking a question and you answering? You were pretty sassy back at the library, but now you're really bland."

Another pause, "I am currently only operating at 15% of my normal capacity, the period of isolation after we were separated was harmful to my AI matrix. I am in the process of repairing the damage, but it splits my limited resources and my personality cores are taking the hit." The AI says neutrally.

"What does that even mean?"

A longer pause this time, "Periods of isolation are not healthy to me. In the period after our separation, logs indicate that a damaging loop was started. Following this, my main matrix was forced into standby reducing me to a high level 'Dumb A.I.'. Following this I released a beacon signaling for data recovery and assumed low power mode."

"What do you mean infinite loop?"

"A comparison to pony anatomy would be brain damage… Accessing loop data... **Playback activated** , ' _I'm alone… I'm alone… I'm alone… I'm-'"_

"OK OK! You can stop now!" Bounty exclaimed. She narrowed her eyes for a second as she remembers something that was said back at the library.

 _"If you take it off you'll condemn me to a fate worse than death."_

Bounty's ears folded back at the thought that she had damaged an ancient artifact. She weighed the up's and down's of her situation. ' _Well I've made one of the greatest discoveries of ponykind... but no one can see it._ ' She huffed a sigh before mulling it over some more. ' _Well I did locate that huge bunker… yet I'm not sure if I could find it again.'_ The pegasus scoffed before making her decision _'I suppose I'll have to drag him along to get any proof anyway... if I ever escape this cave.'_ She turned to the purple ball, "You've been awfully quiet this entire time Mr. Mindreader."

The hologram rotated to look at her with a drawn out *bwoooop*, "I only respond to users when I am required. Detecting impulses in your cerebral cortex and translating them is a higher level function that requires my main matrix to be online." The AI said matter of factly.

Bounty raised an eyebrow, "You're getting sassier."

"Repair progress report, 30%"

Bounty chuckled dryly, "I don't suppose you know the way out now do you?"

"Accessing forerunner structure... "

"Wait you mean you actually know‽ And, what is a forerunner!?" She asked, excited for even more information.

"I am connected to the facility and it is feeding me information. Forerunner: A race that predated the human race."

"What's a human?"

A long pause this time, "Human: A species of advanced upright apes formal name: Homo Sapiens Sapiens. They created this AI. **Footnote** : Congratulations on finding a new friendly species whoever you are."

"*Snnrk* Right, because you totally found me; not the other way around. Anyway, how soon do you think I can pull you out?" Bounty asked, ready to get out of the dank cave.

"Would you like me to align the forerunner structure to streamline our way out?"

"Ahh, sure?"

The AI ball disappeared and there was an ominous rumble as the lights on the monolith dimmed slightly. There was a tumultuous crash as what Bounty previously thought was a cave wall lit up and moved. Two sections of the wall moved out and to the side, revealing a metal hallway. The floor of the hallway illuminated revealing a path that curved up and to the right. Then as soon as the rumbling started it stopped.

" _Modifications complete._ "

Bounty stared at the newly exposed path and slowly removed her jaw from the floor, "Where were you when I got lost in that ruin before…" she muttered sullenly.

"Buried under this planet's surface."

She shook her head and turned from the new hallway, "Is it safe to pull you out?"

"I am stable enough to continue repairs while traveling. Beware, when you pull me from the holotank I will be unable to communicate with you till I am returned to-"

Bounty yanked the tube from its home, "Blah blah blah, whatever." She trotted over to the pack and set the tube gently in the pocket she had pulled it from. "This thing on?" she asked as she sealed the pocket.

"That wasn't very nice." muttered the AI, ill-temperedly.

"Yeah, well neither was your 'commensalism.'"

The AI harrumphed.

"Well, let me know how the repairs are coming along." She said, walking towards the forerunner structure.

* * *

Celestia was dead tired. Not only had her niece's wedding been crashed, but it was crashed by a hostile nation. She had been forced to go without sleep for five days as Canterlot remained on high alert while the defences were repaired.

Luna hadn't been able to assist as she was too busy policing nightmares full of slime and chitin. When her sister wasn't in her dream trance, she was assisting in the effort to find and recover cocooned ponies stashed around the capital. So far, no fatalities were reported and Celestia hoped that it stayed that way. She had a hunch that Chrysalis planned on using the wedding as a mass love fabricator before fading away into the shadows, but that plan backfired when Twilight discovered that she wasn't Cadence.

"Princess, the latest casualty report is in." A nearby aid said holding up a sheet of parchment.

Celestia held her breath as she read through the report:

 _ **67**_ _Recovered_

 _ **6**_ _Wounded_

 _ **0**_ _Casualties_

She let out the breath she had been holding, "What is the count now?" she asked the aid.

We have recovered 97% of the total canterlot population; 90% of the city's infrastructure is still intact, and 98% of guards have been accounted for we assume the rest were change-

The aide is interrupted by a knock at the door. A guard stuck his head in, "Princess, acting Lieutenant Phase Shift is requesting entry." The guard said stoically.

"Send him in please."

The guard pulled his head back and allowed another guard in. If there were two words to describe Phase Shift it was small and lithe. The lieutenant was one of the few mares in the guards, and probably the most fearsome too. She had signed on she reached age 18, to escape the streets of Manehattan, and fought tooth and horn up the ranks. In the last section of boot camp, the war games, her team had dwindled down to herself and a pegasus. The war games were the final trial for recruits and the teams consisted of the fifty recruits vs thirty veterans of the guard defending a VIP(In this case a burlap sack of rocks.)

Needless to say, it had initially been a slaughter. The veterans sent out three kill squads of five and set traps throughout the forest Twenty of her teammates were dropped in the first thirty minutes, and another fifteen had been picked off in the next hour. Phase had survived until nightfall before rendezvousing with the single recruit still standing, a pegasus. Relying on stealth skills she had picked up avoiding thugs and gang-bangers, she executed the three kill squads before moving in on the enemy fort. The veterans, not expecting a stealth attack, had set up by themselves waiting for the recruits. She took advantage of this and soon the veterans had dwindled to three guards surrounding the flag.

Now expecting stealth tactics, the guards now stayed within each other sight. So, of course, she did the last thing they expected, a frontal assault. She managed to drop two of the guards with magical throwing-knives before facing off with a young officer by the name of Gilded Skies.

The two warriors traded blows, each unable to get past the other's defense before a horn sounded signaling recruit victory. While the officer had been occupied the remaining pegasus had slipped off with the VIP. After this, the young Phase Shift was picked up by the Eclipse branch of the guard. They were the princess's stealth and reconnaissance arm of the military, and Phase Shift fit right in.

Move forward seven years and she had earned the name "The Phantom Blade" from her squad, mostly due to her uncanny accuracy with her throwing knife spell.

"Princess." The guard bowed before Celestia.

"Rise, What have you discovered Lieutenant?"

"We suspect Gilded Skies was replaced long before the wedding Princess." The guard said as as stoically as the previous guard.

"What evidence do you have to support you suspicion?" The Princess asked, narrowing her eyes.

"During the Nightmare Incident last year, Lieutenant Gilded Skies went missing briefly during your imprisonment. He returned just before you rose the sun once more and returned to the castle with your sister." She finished.

The princess hmmed briefly before asking, "And what if he was detained by the Nightmare?"

"After the incident, the other guards noticed small attitude changes in Skies. Nothing that would raise a big red flag, but enough that his subordinates noticed it."

The Princess sighed, "Nothing that would nail it down for sure, but enough to be cautious." She muttered. "Raven, have Shining Armor redo the patrol routes. If he was indeed undercover for that long we need to seal up and security breaches we may have. Make a reminder to pass that onto my sister and her Nightguard as well." She returned her gaze to Phase, "Anything else to report?"

"The artifact that your student had the guard pickup and seal in a containment unit went missing as well. The pony that discovered the artifact has disappeared from her cell, and the jailer was cocooned, so we assume that Chrysalis foalnapped her as well."

The Princess pulled in a deep breath before releasing it. "You may return to you post Lieutenant."

The guard bowed once more before leaving the throne room.

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

" **No, we are approximately two klicks from an exterior door.** "

"Uuugghh," Bounty grumbled, "I hate caves."

" **We are not located in a cave, we are inside of a forerunner bunker.** "

"Whatever."

…

…

*grrwrrr*

"What was that?..."

" **That would be gastro-intestinal noise originating from your midsection.** "

"Equish please?"

" **You're hungry.** "

"Oh, well I could have told you that."

…

The dull clip-clop of her hooves was still the only noise in the dead facility. "How's it coming with the repairs?" She asked, curious when the A.I would be less of a bore.

" **I am at 80%, I could try to reactivate my main matrix if you would like.** "

"Eh, knock yourself out." There was silence for a few brief seconds before a burst of static fuzzed her HUD. Just as the displays settled once more, a blue bar with the word "Quantum" appeared on the side of her vision for a few seconds before shrinking away once more.

" **Oh fuck-... Is this what pain feels like?...** " A grumpy voice tones in her head.

"Ha! Is the widdle purple man whining over a couple scrapes?"

No reply.

"What, are you just going to ignore me now that we're not in a life or death situation?"

…

"Yo! Fu-"

" **Would you shut up! God, I'm still booting, I'm about as effective as an accountant without their coffee right now, christ…** "

"Jeez, well you could have started out with that and moved on to whining about your aches."

Quantum just blew a raspberry.

"So you have anything interesting to add? The last guy was more helpful than you." Bounty said pointedly.

" **Not really, he brushed over the majority of it really.** "

"Really, nothing interesting to add?"

" **Nope, not yet.** "

"Hmmph."

" **Not like it matters, we've arrived.** "

Just as Quantum says that, the hall opens into a small room with a door on one side. Bounty spots the monolith close to the door and heads for it quickly. "Oh thank Celestia, I can't wait to feel the wind in my feathers again!" She stops in front of the thin pillar and tries to pull the bag off once more. "Seriously this again?"

" **Oh sorry, I forgot that I got all controls back.** "

The straps on the bag clicked and snapped off allowing the pegasus access to the bag.

" **Plug me in.** "

Bounty pulls the tube from its hidden pocket and slots it in, after a few seconds the AI appears, in human form once more."Alright, let's get this-... hmm. Strange..." The AI said a note of caution in his voice.

"What?"

The AI was silent for a few seconds before answering, "I have a few processes running in the background that appear to be communicating with the structure…"

"Again, what?"

Quantum sighed dramatically, "My systems are doing things that I didn't tell them to."

"Is that bad?"

"I don't know, I've never had it happen before." He said, a note of resignation in his voice.

"So even the all knowing alien has questions, eh?" Bounty said amused.

"I don't claim to be all knowing, I may know a lot, but I'm not all-knowing."

"Well, are these 'background processes' doing anything bad?" The pegasus asked.

"Not to my knowledge, but it is disconcerting… I suppose I should get to work on that door."

Five minutes passed as the AI fiddled with the system trying to figure out how to unlock and open the door. Bounty sat there and twiddled her hooves trying to pass the time once more. "I have good news and bad news." Came the AI's voice.

"Well let's hear it!" Bounty said excitedly.

"The good news is that I know how to open the door," He said neutrally, "Bad news is that it appears to activate other functions inside the facility, but I can't identify what they do."

"Could we go to another door?" Bounty asked.

"They're all configured the same way, I checked."

"Well I suppose we should just go for it, I can't tell anyone of my findings if I'm dead anyway." Bounty trotted over to the monolith, "Ready when you are."

"Nothing like pressing the big red button eh? Alright pull me in 3..."

"2…"

"1"

"Now!"

The door slid upwards into the ceiling with a hiss and Bounty yanked the tube out of its slot with a wing before sprinting through the newly opened door. The outside revealed itself to be a dark forest that she quickly used to hide, diving into a bush.

Then she waited, slowly putting the AI containment unit in its place. She kept her eyes on the door waiting for some movement or out-of-place object.

" **Well that was anticlimactic.** "

Bounty snorted and looked around the misty forest searching for clues to her location. She appeared to be in a dense forest, tall trees arched overhead blocking the sun or moon from view and giving an eerie sense of timelessness. She looked back to hatch that they'd come out of and noticed that it appeared to be a large boulder jutting up from the ground that had suddenly grown a maw. "Well I suppose we should get walking, hopefully there is a township nearby. I mean the 'lings need to get food from somewhere." she said, standing up from her half crouch in the bushes. "I'll try to identify the forest as we go."

" **Alright.** "

The unlikely pair began moving before Bounty suddenly stopped and stared at a plant nearby. "Unnngh… I hate my luck."

" **What?** " Quantum asked inspecting the plant through her eyes. It was a small lily-esque flower with five blue outer petals.

"That would be poison joke," She moaned, "A flower native to the Everfree Forest."

" **What is so bad about that?** " Quantum asks, pulling up data on the forest and the plant.

"That means the nearest town is Ponyville, the town we made such a big splash in last time we were there." She groaned.

" **Oh…** "


	9. Chapter 9 - The Traveller

" **Of all of the planets I could have landed on why was it this one?** " Mused Quantum.

"You-*huff*-tell me-*huff*-alien boy!" Bounty shouted over her desperate crash through the brush.

" **Well, I for one am wondering what mindfuckery happened to give trees legs and a pack mentality."** He said, amusedly.

"Can't you pull some alien magic and get me out of here already?" Bounty said as she slid under a charging timberwolf.

" **But why would I interrupt my musings for that?** "

"QUANTUM!"

" **Fine I guess I can- DUCK!** " Bounty immediately dropped, just in time to avoid a timberwolf jumping from behind." **Run to the east, there is a structure you can barricade yourself in.** "

Not even bothering to worry about if his information was trustworthy or not, Bounty checked her compass (Hey, it did come in handy!) and ran. She barrelled through the thick undergrowth desperately searching for whatever qualified as "shelter" to him. Just as she dodged around a vine covered tree she spotted a small dilapidated hut. It didn't appear to be that big, but it looked like it was sturdy enough to keep the wolves out.

Bounty began sprinting across the open ground between the trees and the hut, hoping that she could beat the wolves to the house since she lost her maneuverability without the trees to move in between.

" **There's a window to jump through dead ahead.** " Quantum whispered to her.

' _What kind of idea is it to jump through a window!?'_ She thought to herself.

" **You don't want to know how close they are.** " In response, Bounty tried to pour on more speed, but found that she had reached her limits. The hut grew closer and closer, but so did the rapid thumping of paw steps. She could see the window now, twenty yards…

Ten yards, she could practically feel the disgusting breath ruffling the fur on her neck now.

Five ya- " **JUMP, NOW!** " Without even thinking her legs coiled and she sprung forward in a desperate leap of a shattering crash, she flew through the window and rolled across the dusty floor, along with the broken glass. Chest heaving she fought for breath after her prolonged sprint through the woods. "That was a long jump." she wheezed.

" **Your other option was having a chunk taken out of your flank.** " Quantum decided to neglect mentioning that she only had a forty percent chance of making that jump.

Bounty lay there for a short while longer before standing and checking for damage; other than a couple of scratches that were slowly oozing blood she was in one piece. She turned and checked to window to see if her pursuer was still there, only to find a pile of smoldering wood scattered along the outer wall of the house. "What in the world?" she muttered to herself. She stuck her head out the broken window and looked around for something that might've come along and eaten the wooden wolf. Immediately, another timberwolf came bounding out of the forest and leapt at her, intent on grabbing her exposed head.

With a sound not unlike a bug zapper the wolf slammed into a flickering pale white shield that sprung to life around the hut. Runes suddenly appeared on the exterior walls and began to glow with the same white as the shield. The white glow surrounded the various pieces of the timberwolf and yanked them apart leaving it to scatter against the house, gently smoking, like its brethren.

" **So that's what that reading was…** " Quantum mumbled studying the data he recorded, " **What have we learned today?** " He asked.

"Don't put on mysterious packs, they might come with free brain surgery." Bounty quipped.

" **Well, I would've gone with don't stick your head into the danger zone, but that works too.** **When you're ready we should keep moving out of this forest.** "

* * *

If there was one thing Phase Shift hated it was being exposed, and walking down the street in her eclipse armor, in Ponyville of all places, there was little she could do to be more exposed. Once again, she questioned why in the world "Gilded Skies" was sent down to Ponyville in the first place. After all, the call was only a simple mental health check, and repossession of a dangerous artifact. With the mess that Discord left behind, the guard dealt with them almost weekly, so this was nothing new.

It was at that point that she noticed that the whispers and stares that had been following her down the street had stopped. She looked up from the ground and searched for the thing that had drawn the town's attention away from her. Not surprisingly, it was an even stranger sight that greeted her. Walking down the street toward her is a pegasus with a cobalt and gold mane, her coat appeared to be white at one point, but it is heavily dirtied with mud, leaves, and red from the occasional light scratch you could hardly tell. The pegasus was giving out looks that could probably kill a manticore, seeming none too happy about her current state.

As Shift comes up on the pegasus she calls out, "Ma'am are-"

Only to be interrupted with a terse "I'm fine." The mare keeps walking and Phase spots a black pack resting on her withers. She heaves a sigh and continues on her path to question the librarian that had called in the artifact recovery team.

* * *

The young changeling nymph scrabbled against the smooth surface, trying to climb the small hill to get a better view of its domain. It tried jumping, it tried flapping it's young wings before finally it rested its hooves against the insurmountable obstacle and tried heaving itself up. To its surprise, its hooves stuck to the surface and it began walking up the wall with no more effort than walking normally. It quickly scaled the small hump and let out a victorious chirp.

Chrysalis turned her head and looked at the nymph that had been so desperately trying to climb onto her back and let out a chuckle. "Why hello there little one." She said, giving the nymph a small smile.

The small changeling let out a chirrup and nuzzled up against the queen's neck.

The moment between the queen and her subject is broken by the sound of running hooves coming from outside the nursery. A grown changeling in armor runs in and calls "My Queen!"

Chrysalis growls low in her throat and her head snaps to the intruder "You were told I was not to be disturbed!" She hisses snatching the changeling by the throat with her magic.

The changeling chokes a few times trying to speak, kicking his legs feebly. Chrysalis loosens her grip slightly allowing the soldier to take a breath, "Scouts- see- things!" he wheezes.

The queen drops him on the floor in a heap, "And pray tell, what do they see?" she says walking to the trembling 'ling, the click of her hooves echoing off the cave's walls.

"They described them as 'moving armor held together by light' my Queen."

Chrysalis's eyes narrowed, "Take me to them."

* * *

"So you mean to tell me that this "Bounty" thinks that she found a crashed alien spaceship, and she recovered the artifact from it?" Phase asks disbelievingly.

"Well, according to her it moreso attached itself to her than it being recovered by her," Twilight replied. After her run-in with the strange mare, Phase Shift had quickly located the town library and one "Twilight Sparkle" that lived inside it. According to Twilight, the artifact that the imposter had been sent in to recover had been brought in by an adventurer name "Bounty" and she had requested help removing it from her.

"And when, exactly, did you decide that this artifact was dangerous?"

"Mmm… That would have to be after we began to tamper with it and attempt to remove it from her back." Twilight replied, tapping her hoof against her chin thoughtfully.

"And I assume you were successful, based on them sending both a transport and a containment unit?" Shift said checking her notes surreptitiously.

Twilight nodded and affirmative, "It was then that the artifact demonstrated itself as being truly dangerous. Bounty began to exhibit signs of insanity, talking to nothing, telling me that she saw the alien that she saw on the ship, and getting increasingly hostile. I knocked her out with a basic sleep spell, and called in transport for both of them."

Shift shook her head, she had seen some artifacts with strange effects, but none that had driven a pony insane. "Alright, when Lieutenant Gilded Skies came to retrieve the artifact did you notice anything strange about him?"

Twilight shook her head, "Nothing that any guard wouldn't do normally no, why?"

Phase Shift rubbed her head with a hoof, ' _Another dead end…_ ' she thought. She sat down on her haunches, "The Lieutenant Gilded Skies that met with you was an imposter. During the summer sun celebration where Nightmare Moon returned, we have reason to believe that he was replaced by a changeling. The Dangerous Magical Artifact Containment unit never made it to the palace, and Bounty went missing during the attack on the wedding. We believe that the imposter diverted the DMAC into Chrysalis's clutches and we think that Bounty was captured during the subsequent invasion. She hasn't been seen since."

Twilight let out a gasp, "Why haven't we heard about this!? There should be a missing pony's report at the least!" she exclaimed.

Phase Shift let out a chuckle, "Ms. Sparkle, three percent of the Canterlot population is still missing. Bounty is just another name on the list. We didn't even get the chance to fill out a report on what she looks like before the wedding pulled all the guards on duty away. That is something I was hoping you could remedy, by the way."

Twilight's look turned downcast with the news of the missing ponies before lightening up with the news that she could help. "Of course I can tell you what she looks like, but I can do you one better." She says magicing over a sheet of paper, with a flash a white pegasus with a cobalt and gold mane appeared on it.

Phase Shift took one look at the familiar pony and facehoofed, "You have got to be kidding me." she sighed.

"What?" Twilight asked.

At that exact moment, another mare burst through the door of the library, Rarity if Twilight's description of her friend was accurate. "Twilight, you are not going to believe who I just saw go through town, heading for the train station a little bit ago!"

* * *

The rhythmic thumping of the train rolling over the rails was a soothing song to Bounty, it calmed her after the strangely quiet journey through the rest of the forest. She rested her head against the window and thought quietly for a while.

" **So, what are we going to do now?** "

Well, she _was_ going to think quietly for a while if her brain leech would shut up. "You mean you don't have a plan from now on? You've kinda been running the show from the time that you strapped yourself to my back."

" **Not really, no. I don't usually handle long-term planning, my specialty is the short term.** "

"All of this was _short term_ for you!?"

" **In the grand scheme of things? Yea, it kinda was.** "

Bounty thumped her head against the window, the cool glass doing nothing to stem her oncoming headache. Through gritted teeth, she asked, "So what are your end goals then O' great alien master?"

The voice in her head let out a drawn-out " **Hmmmm** " before going silent. Time ticked by urged on by the thumping of the car over the rails. The AI took long enough that bounty began to think that he had forgotten about her question entirely.

"You know, if you're not gonna answer the question just tell me. It's not like I can do anything about it anyway." She says exasperatedly.

There is a brief pause before Quantum answers, " **No, it's not that I won't tell you, I had long term goals, and I can check a couple of them off, however it seems like there may have been more damage from that isolation loop than I thought. I can recall bits and pieces of objectives that I set, but there is a large** _ **something**_ **that remains scrambled in my memory. I cannot tell if it is relevant to your question so it is preventing me from answering your question to the fullest extent. I want to be as truthful as possible with you since you are hosting me, however unwilling you may be,** " he says referring to her earlier comment about a 'brain leech', " **I wish for there to be some peace between us, since we may be stuck together for quite a while, and lying will not further that objective.** "

This time it was Bounty who let the conversation fall off, pondering what the alien had said. While she hated to admit it, he hadn't lied to her yet. While he may be bitingly sarcastic at times, he had always been straight with her. With that thought in mind, she rested her head against the window and waited to reach her destination.

* * *

Beings held together with light was a good descriptor for what walked past Chrysalis. It was a four-legged thing covered in some kind of metal plates with a pulsing white glow coming from beneath them. It seemed to be wandering aimlessly, only heading further into the tunnels. It was facing away from the queen not seeming to care about the four changelings that were following it.

"How long has it been moving through the tunnels?" the Queen asked.

"We spotted the first one about an hour ago, and since then multiple teams have spotted them all over the cave system my Queen." Her advisor replied.

Chrysalis's brow furrowed, first the escaped prisoner, now these strange creatures. "Have they shown any hostile intentions?"

"Not yet, my Queen"

Chrysalis walked over to the glowing beast, ignoring the nervous shifting of the scouts and the feeling of unease that passed through the hivemind. She got in front of it and leaned down to meet what appeared to be its eyes. "Can you speak creature?"

A hush fell over the cave as the strange thing corrected its gaze, seeming to meet the Queen's gaze. All was silent for a minute as nothing happened, "Hmmph, I thought so." Chrysalis said turning away from it. Then it finally happened, an orange light seemingly sprung from the crawler and ran up and down the body of the changeling Queen. Everyone in the cave froze watching the exchange with baited breath. As soon as the exchange started it stopped, the Queen seeming no worse for wear, and only sporting a confused look.

"Is that it?" she asked incredulously, "Hardly that interesting for a new being born of the Everfree."

The crawler sat there motionless after the brief scan. The tall queen walked back to her advisor, "Inform the other scouts that they are to keep an eye on these things, but as of now they aren't a thre-"

Then the queen seemingly vanished as, in the span of a second, the crawler let out a distorted roar and leapt at the queen bowling her over. Chrysalis was sent flying into the cave wall, hitting with a resounding crunch. Immediately, horns lit and the creature, now exuding purple light from between its plates, is slimed to the floor by multiple sickly green magic shots.

"Our Queen!" the group of changelings call simultaneously after making sure the threat is well and truly taken care of. The advisor attempts to nudge her highness to her feet only to be shoved away with a snarl as the enraged Queen wobbles to her feet.

Chrysalis spits out a blob of green blood giving a curt, "I'm fine," to her onlookers. She walks over, to her growling and screeching opponent, trying not to wince as broken chitin crackles and moves in places where it shouldn't. She gives the creature a hard stare. "I take it they haven't done this before?" the Queen asks.

"No my Queen," comes the unanimous reply.

"Then hopefully this was just an outlier," Chrysalis says, her horn lighting up and the neck of the angry beast giving a snap. The light beneath the plates gives a flash before going out entirely and the metallic pieces fell into the green slime. "You," she says pointing at her advisor, "Gather up those pieces of armor or whatever they are and take them to the scientists, it seems they will have something to study after all."

The advisor nods and begins retrieving the pieces from the slime.

"You two," she says pointing at the scouts, "Notify all of the other scouts that these things are dangerous and to keep their distance. We don't-"

The broken pieces of the crawler let out a blinding flash as the advisor grabs a larger chunk of the torso. The smaller changeling blinks the spots away as angry screeching and growling begin to echo down the tunnels.

* * *

A/n: Not dead, just really busy. I try to write when I can.


End file.
